


In Our Darkest Hour, Our True Selves are Revealed

by Goodking



Category: Persona 2, Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: (But he also has Multiple Personas), (I mean most persona protagonists can cook why should he also be able to do so), (Nakamura Aika is a Persona 4 the Animation Character believe it or not), (The Character Tags are kinda Spoilers too), (kinda spoiler), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mineta Minoru Doesn't Exist, Alternate Universe - Persona Fusion, Asui Tsuyu is a Good Friend, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki Experiences Consequences, Bisexual Disaster Midoriya Izuku, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Dabi is Todoroki Touya, Entrance Exam Arc (My Hero Academia), Iida Tenya is a Good Friend, Insomniac Shinsou Hitoshi, Izuku can cook, Manipulative Nedzu (My Hero Academia), Midoriya Izuku Has One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Midoriya Izuku is a Sub, Multi, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Spoilers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Persona 4 Spoilers, Persona User Uraraka Ochako, Personas Have Personalities, Pre-Sports Festival Arc (My Hero Academia), Sadistic Nedzu (My Hero Academia), Shinsou Hitoshi Replaces Mineta Minoru, Shinsou Hitoshi is a Good Friend, Shinsou Hitoshi is in Class 1-A, Sports Festival Arc (My Hero Academia), The Velvet Room (Persona Series), The rating will try to stay T but I don't promise shit, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor Being An Asshole, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting, Tsundere Shinsou Hitoshi, U.A. Dorms (My Hero Academia), U.A. is a University (My Hero Academia), Uraraka Ochako is a Good Friend, Wild Card Midoriya Izuku, Yaoyorozu Momo is a Good Friend, don't worry my pals the minor ocs will ALL fail the entrance exam, mentions of past bullying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 212,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26415553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goodking/pseuds/Goodking
Summary: “I assure you, there is no nefarious plot being schemed against you right now,” The weird kidnapper blatantly lies, because if Izuku has learned anything from this life is that there is always someone out there going out of their way to get him, “You have just been… invited here, to become our new and most esteemed Guest, for us to entertain and nurture in the days to come. You are in a place between dream and reality, somewhere where you’ll find the help and nurturing you will need in the perilous journey that awaits you in the coming years.”"Now, Please, Take a Seat."
Relationships: Aoyama Yuuga & Midoriya Izuku, Aoyama Yuuga & Uraraka Ochako, Asui Tsuyu & Midoriya Izuku, Asui Tsuyu & Tokoyami Fumikage, Asui Tsuyu & Uraraka Ochako, Asui Tsuyu/Midoriya Izuku, Asui Tsuyu/Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki/Consequences - Relationship, Class 1-A & Midoriya Izuku, Hagakure Tooru & Midoriya Izuku, Hatsume Mei & Midoriya Izuku, Hatsume Mei/Midoriya Izuku, Iida Tenya & Midoriya Izuku, Iida Tenya & Midoriya Izuku & Uraraka Ochako, Iida Tenya & Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Inko & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Everyone, Midoriya Izuku & Shimura Nana, Midoriya Izuku & Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku & Shouji Mezou, Midoriya Izuku & Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku & Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Midoriya Izuku & Yaoyorozu Momo, Midoriya Izuku/Everyone, Midoriya Izuku/Nakamura Aika, Midoriya Izuku/Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku/Yaoyorozu Momo, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 284
Kudos: 338





	1. Fool Arcana: Rank I

“The world is rotting.

And no one seems to care.

Humanity has squandered, abused the gifts they’ve been given, domesticated them, turned them into ill-suited jesters for their own amusement, into means to appease their greed, their ego, their lust...

This ends now.

For far too long have the undeserving prospered over the backs of the weak and the unlucky, for far too long this... society, this society we live in has thrived and feasted on the blood and dreams of those who were really, truly heroes, for far too long it has rewarded those who abuse and deceive her with their Quirks and their powers, like maggots, sucking onto the blood and ichor of those beneath them.

I can feel it, in the life force of the unworthy as it is spilled across the grimy streets. Society is festering a cancer, feeding it with her treachery as it coddles the weak, as it rewards the corrupt, letting those aiming for riches and fame to prosper, letting those who profit from this unjust system to survive and rule, squashing the dreams of the true heroes, of those who didn’t get the right power for their own ambition and dream of heroism, tainted by a world that doesn’t seem to care for them.

An empty dream in a broken world.

This ends now.

I will put erase this broken, corrupt, festering reality, alone if I’ll have to, thanks to the very Id of those wretched fools and unworthy sycophants, thanks to the very blood and ichor and life force, spilled, staining the streets and the walls and the air of this wretched world, as I feast on those same maggots myself, feed upon them, predators becoming prey, sacrificed to the altar of a greater cause.

Because no one else is doing it.

Because that’s what heroes do. Even if I’ll have to hide in the shadows, even if I’ll be hunted down for my sacred work, I will not be stopped, I will not be crushed under the weight of this necrotic society as I sever its limbs and paralyze it before it can grow into even bigger rot.

I shall bring the world unto its salvation, I shall immolate those fake heroes to my cause, and I shall do it all in His name.

No matter the cost!”

* * *

It was a truth universally acknowledged, that not all Men were created equal.

Midoriya Izuku knew this, just like he knew, deep within himself, that had not exactly been dealt such a great hand in this life.

In a world where almost everyone has a superpower, he was born without one.

It was… depressing, all things considered.

His mother was distraught over it, horrified, almost blaming herself for doing this to him, as if that was her fault at all. The poor boy feels like a stab in his heart every time he remembered the crying, sobbing woman, desperately begging him to forgive her for what had happened to him, because she couldn’t even bring herself to lie to him and tell him everything was gona be Ok, that even without a Quirk, he could still become a hero…

His best friend hates him now, calls him weak, useless, hits him, he and his new friends use their Quirks on him, and Izuku doesn’t even know why. For sport? For their own amusement? Some broken, hopeful, almost twisted part of him wanted to believe this is just Kacchan trying to protect him from himself in his own, weird Kacchan’s why, maybe he’s actually doing all of this because he cares about him, because he doesn’t want him to die while being a hero without a Quirk...

But Izuku isn’t so sure about that anymore.

( _“Why don’t you go to the school roof and jump then Deku? Maybe you’ll finally get a quirk in your next life!”_ )

His teachers, his schoolmates, they let him do it, maybe even egg him on, or join in, and Izuku can’t help but recoil at the sight of them, at the look they have in their eyes as they mock him, as Ka- Bakugou blasts his belongings again, or as he finds slurs and insults carved on his desk, again, or tacks in his shoes or gum on his chair or explosives go off inches away from his face...

He can’t help but be terrorized by the sheer relief he sees in their eyes.

The relief that they are not the ones in his shoes right now. That he is the one getting bullied here, instead of them, that he is the one without a Quirk, that he is the one being mocked for it, rather than them.

He never really faulted any of them for thinking like that.

His father, on the other hand...

…

Izuku’s father stopped mattering the day he bailed on his wife and kid. The moment he left them, because his kid happened to be born without a quirk, the moment he left for some sort of “oversea trip,” never to return, Izuku’s dad stopped being relevant to anything in his life.

One day he was there, the next he simply… stopped being there.

And Izuku is content that way. Really, he is, even if he feels the loneliness and sadness of his mother every day of his wretched life, even if he can’t bring himself to tell her what is happening at school in fear of bringing even more pain to her, even as he is burned and hit and mocked, even if he has no friends, if the adults in his life won’t do anything to help him, to support him, to support his dream.

His dream of being a hero.

Even as he is drowning and getting murdered by a slime monster, alone and crying in a grimy alley.

Even as his own hero shatters his dream with a carelessness he had never thought possible of him, with the casual indifference that breaks something deep within Izuku’s soul, as he naively suggests to him to dream smaller, maybe become a cop instead, as if Quirk Based Discrimination in the Police Force didn’t exist.

And yet, even now, bawling his eyes out, as he sees the shadow of the man he once idolized limp away, he tries not to be too sad about his lot in life.

Tries to find a silver lining in his miserable bitch of a situation.

And failing miserably at it.

Midoriya Izuku has been handled a truly shitty hand in this life indeed.

But who knows?

Maybe things are going to change soon for our green haired boy.

Who knows if for better or for worse.

* * *

_XX Hours Earlier._

One second, Izuku is having a… embarrassingly suggestive dream.

The second, he is suddenly, inexplicably, lucidly aware of his surrounding, as he blinks at the unfamiliar environment.

If Izuku had to think of a word to… describe the room he was in right now, it would be....

Blue.

With maybe with “Decadent” coming in as a close second.

Indeed, it was almost eerie how… Blue the whole room was, drapes of dark blue cloth cascading onto couches of light blue leather, curtains and carpets and tablecloths made of countless shades of blue swirling all around him in the mess of a room he is in.

Izuku can hear a faint, almost angelic choir all around him, as he tries to focus is hearing on whatever possible source it might come from, squinting his eyes a little on the ethereal light coming from everywhere and nowhere, thankfully not panicking yet.

He… He has no memory of how he got there.

All he remembers, was having dinner with his beloved mother, finish to analyse the day’s hero fights he had managed to witness on one of his notebooks, and hit the sack early so to be fresh and rested for the ordeal that would have been school tomorrow. He doesn’t know how or why he finds himself suddenly into such a fancy room, and his mind, sluggishly jolted to a semblance of coherence, immediately starts going a mile a minute as he tries to rationalize what is happening to him.

He spots a door, seemingly the only exit there, on the far side of the room, and quickly jitters his way to it, squinting around the empty room in fear, attempting to force it open even as it doesn’t budge of an inch. Izuku grunts in frustration at his futile endeavour and tries to think about what to do next, panic finally setting in, like a background noise within his mind, eyes progressively widening as worse and worse scenarios start playing in his mind.

“Welcome.”

Izuku screams.

It’s a pretty high pitched one, accompanied by a startled jump away from the source of his fright, right a as he turns to it, the… man standing behind him with an enigmatic grin, Izuku already trying to cover his face with his arms against the new, potential threat.

“To the Velvet Room,” The figure concludes with a pleased smile, pointedly ignoring Izuku’s reaction to his sudden appearance.

The… person, if he could be called that, who has just greeted Izuku manages to be one of the few adult men the boy has ever managed to look in the eye without having to crane his neck upward. He’s wearing a black tux, the only other thing in the entire place managing not to be a shade of blue, and if Izuku had to point out one specific characteristic among the… countless peculiarities the man seems to be sporting right now, he would probably go for the eyes, wide and unblinking, hyper-realistic like they were out of some fucked up creepypasta from the olden times, so large Izuku swears he can see veins in the whites of them, staring down right onto his soul after years of lack of sleep and a diet based on raw coffee beans munched straight out of the can.

That, or his bafflingly long nose, an appendage that was clearly violating all laws of anatomy by simply existing, so long that it’s almost poking him in the ribs even at the small distance he is in.

_“How does he not fall off with all that added weight unbalancing him?”_

“Do not be Alarmed,” The figure says in a practiced tone, perhaps a tad too late for it to be of any help “You are fast asleep, in the real world.”

Izuku blinks, hands twitching at his sides, longing for one of his notebooks and a pencil as the news of the apparent dreamlike nature of the place do nothing to ease his mounting nerves, as the man’s words instantly put him in a high state of alarm.

All the worst-case scenarios he had been envisioning till now rear their ugly heads back inside his mind at once. After all, for all Izuku knows, he could have been kidnapped back when he was asleep, or maybe this was all the work of someone’s Quirk, maybe of the same man in front of him, maybe of someone else infiltrating his dreams, using the man as a distraction so to enter a deeper layer of his dreams in order to mess with his mind, or maybe this was simply a distraction to masquerade a real, physical attack against him, or a mental one that would definitely result in Izuku’s psyche’s irreparably damaged by whatever villain that had-

The Man blinks, once, humming pensively at Izuku’s reaction, and Izuku cheeks blush a faint red, instantly assuming he has been mumbling till now right in front of the maybe-a-dream-maybe-a-quirk person.

He tries to open his mouth to apologize to his own kidnapper, only for no sound to come out of him.

Izuku’s eyes widen in fright.

“I assure you, there is no nefarious plot being schemed against you right now,” The kidnapper blatantly lies, because if Izuku has learned anything in this life is that there is always someone out there going out of their way to get him, especially now that he has been robbed of his voice by obviously nefarious means “You have just been… invited to become our new and esteemed Guest, for us to entertain and nurture in the days to come. You are in a place between dream and reality, somewhere where you’ll find the help and nurturing you will need in the perilous journey that awaits you in the coming years.”

“Now, please, take a seat.”

Izuku blinks, and in the fraction of a second it takes for him to close and open his eyes, he finds himself seated on a plushy, cerulean armchair, right in front of a blue, metallic square table, as the long nosed man appears in the seat right in front of him.

“Forces beyond your control have been set into motion, each wearing a disguise, a Mask to present themselves into the play that is your life, taking in a role easy to understand, easy to overlook, so to hide the layers within, to better trick the world into bending to their demands, forging it into their vision, their Dreams of reality. Heroes, Villains, Vigilantes, Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, they are all masks, worn by those that surround you, and by those that will oppose you” The Man cryptically says with a pleased smile, as blue cards spill from out of his sleeve like he was some washed up magician, scattering on the table in between them, all face down, “Some of those Masks, you will be able to comprehend, understand, perhaps even contrast or aid as you see fit, but others, others will be not so easy for you to deal with, especially as you are now.”

Izuku frowns at the man’s words, but he doesn’t even have the time to remember he can’t open his mouth to ask him any question before he is swiftly “interrupted” again.

“I, oh honoured guest, am Igor, host of the Velvet Room, and I am to aid you into achieving your own dreams, to turn them into your own reality, as you prevent the catastrophe that will soon ensue. I am here, to see you choose which Mask you will keep for the years to come, and which you will reject.”

A swift motion of his hand in the air, from his right side to the left, and 4 masks appear in a bright blue flame, hovering mid-air in between them.

Izuku can’t help but stare at them, transfixed, mouth numb and unable to speak.

“Will you resign to a meek life of misery, a victim, a civilian caught in the struggle between good and evil, safe in his inaction, in his inadequacy? Or will achieve your dreams of heroics despite your many struggles, despite the many hardships others will inflict on you, and become the hero who saves everyone with a smile as you always wanted, trying to save this dying world from within its very own system? Or maybe you will reject this path and the shackles that come with it, and become a Vigilante, working from outside a system that despise you to fix it, to save as many people as possible? Or maybe Villainy will be your path, your Mask, to hide the grief and strife the world has inflicted on you and those like you, to save the world while damning your very soul to do so?”

The Four masks disappear with another swish of Igor’s hand, getting back to whence they came.

“Such clear-cut roles are hardly fitting for the incredible complexity of the human psyche, the sea of their soul, and yet, one day, you will have to choose what mask to wear, like anyone in this world.”

He concludes with a chuckle, seemingly ignoring the boy in front of him, his panicked, wide eyes, and his mouth sealed shut by whatever force that was keeping him within this room.

“You are here now in your dreams, but soon, you will come to us willingly, in the waking world, to seek what power we can offer you. For you see, your life is about to take a sudden, sharp turn, and only you, in your role as a wild card, will be able to decide if it’ll be a turn for the better or for the worst…”

A small, reverential pause, to make Igor’s final words properly sink in, Izuku’s frown only deepening.

“But before we let you go, a... complimentary reading, to see your fortune in the cards, what awaits you in this life if things were to remain as they are, to better prepare for the trials to come.”

He finally shuffles the face down cards in front of him, back into a proper deck, as Izuku can’t help but stare at him, his mouth shut, his voice gone, wide eyes witnessing the first card being flipped.

“The Tower Arcana.” Igor says with a pleased smile. “It symbolizes disaster and defeat. Not the most… hopeful of cards, but I’m sure with the right conviction, you’ll be able to overcome every adversity and fulfil your destiny in a timely manner. Speaking of which…”

Igor flips a second card, a small frown suddenly taking residence upon his brow and making his crazed eyes even more evident as he peers at the second card he has just flipped off his deck.

“The… Tower Arcana. Again.” He says with a hum, placing the second, face up tower arcana near the first one, “How… peculiar.”

He flips another card from the deck, only to reveal a third Tower arcana, followed by a fourth, a fifth, a sixth and even a seventh tower arcana in a row. Igor looks at the 7 towers, wide eyed, or at least even more wide-eyed than before, before looking up at the confused teen.

Izuku gives him a sheepish shrug in response, as confused about what was happening as Igor was.

Igor grabs all 7 tower Arcanas, shuffles them back in the deck, and reveals all 22 Arcanas face up, revealing a full deck of major Arcanas with no doubles whatsoever.

One of Igor’s eyes twitches, almost imperceptibly, and Izuku is almost ready to irrationally apologize for, well, whatever the hell was happening, ( _“Maybe I managed to find the limit of this man’s quirk? Maybe he can’t control this dream, or this illusion unless everything is shades of blue or black in here, and me having green hair must have messed up with it? Or maybe…”_ ), before his unnerving eyes snap back to him, long nose almost knocking him in the chin.

“Well, I say we will postpone the reading for another time, shall we?” He hastily says, his tone getting back into his previous, enigmatically pleased drawl, “Soon, you’ll be drafted into a pact that has transcended generations, and we will meet once again within your dreams, before finally meeting in the waking world, as you awaken the powers that will allow you to change your destiny.”

He gives out a final pleased hum, as he dismisses Izuku with a final wave of his gloved hand.

“I’m sure I’m going to hear… interesting things about you, and see you soon, oh esteemed guest.”

Izuku frowns at Igor’s words, only for the numbness, the hold on his mouth to finally subside. As he tries to ask him… something, anything about his quirk, about what the hell was he talking about, his eyes, the traitors, start getting heavy, dropping as his vision of the room and the man in front of him growing heavier and fainter, as he once again succumbs to the waiting arms of sleep, his minds frantically analysing the process, as he still tries to make sense of the situation via the lens of his Quirk Analysis, right as his memory grows hazy…

Right as Izuku forgets everything that had just happened.

* * *

It’s the end of Izuku’s Very Bad, Unsurprisingly Horrible day, the natural culmination of the string of Very Bad, Unsurprisingly Horrible days Izuku had had the pleasure to live for most of his life, and the young boy is finally coming to terms with his dream getting crushed and stomped to the ground, beaten to a motionless, bloody pulp by his childhood hero with just a couple, simple words.

Tears are flowing, flooding the cramped alley as he tries to get back to his home, away from prying, judgemental eyes, one hand gripping at his ruined backpack, the other trying fruitlessly to rub at his red, puffy eyes.

Things couldn’t get any worse for Izuku.

So, obviously, things decided to exceed expectation and get even worse than Izuku could ever imagine.

The sound of explosions, a constant soundtrack of Izuku’s miserable life start blasting from the mouth of the alley, growing fainter and weaker as Izuku witnesses the same Slime Villain who almost killed him, the same monster who probably escaped his childhood’s hero because of him, because of when he had distracted him by holding onto his leg…

As he’s slowly drowning, as he’s relentlessly murdering his childhood friend.

And no one is doing anything to stop it.

Heroes are there of course, because Heroes were always there, somewhere, when tragedies were happening, where victims were to be protected but Izuku always assumed they were there to prevent said tragedies, to save those same victims from their cruel and unfortunate demises.

Not to gawk at the situation, as powerless as Izuku had always felt in his life.

(A small, still rational part of Izuku’s brain is trying to justify them, spouting off facts he knows by memory about each of their quirks, about Kamui Woods being too flammable to really step in with all the fires Kacchan oh so nicely decided to start, or Mt. Lady not really being all that suited for rescue operations in such close quarters, or Backdraft being too occupied with the fires and protecting the other civilians to really do anything, but Izuku is ignoring that part, his brain, suddenly, for the first time in his life, going blank as it stops processing all information in front of him and simply stares at the sight, a slight static sound humming beneath).

For a moment, Izuku’s mind, drained from the emotionally taxing day as it was, wonders when is someone going to do something, a hero, someone with a power, someone better than him, to save Kacchan in time from a slow, agonizing, painful death.

And in that small, terrible moment, a thought, intrusive and dark and morbid and so much not his Izuku physically recoils at the sound, tears stopping as his eyes go wide.

“ _I hope no one arrives in time for him._ ”

The voice, so much like his own and yet so different, distorted as it was, echoes in Izuku’s skull, ricocheting around as he hears her, and Izuku is disgusted with himself at the sheer gal it had for sprouting up inside his mind, teeth gritting.

_“Do not deny you are thinking that. We are thinking that. I AM THINKING THAT. Do not deny you are not secretly wishing for him to die, for him to suffer the same agony he had put us through, do not deny you do not desire for him to suffer our same fate, for him to reach the next life without his Quirk, become a Quirkless nobody just. Like. Us.”_

Time slows down, almost imperceptibility, as Izuku’s... intrusive thoughts keep on going, unperturbed.

 _“Not that it’s gona change much what You, We, I think, no one is saving him after all._ _No one ever came for me, no one ever came to save us, no one ever believed in you, not our mother, not your best friend, not my hero, and certainly not that BULLY!”_

A faint headache starts forming between Izuku’s eyes, and he can almost hear his teeth grinding against each other, trying to drown the invading voice.

“ _He’s not our problem anyway. We are not Heroes, we are not someone who saves people by sporting a big, fake smile, we are just a Quirkless nobody, useless and stupid for wanting to believe in something we could never become. He is surrounded by saviours is he not? Maybe he will be saved by them, someone who isn’t us, why should you bother with this anyway, aren’t I right me?”_

“No.” Izuku chokes back a sob, one hand coming to his aching temples, cradling them, only to find a leathery mask over it, covering his eyes. His eyes narrow in a glare, not directed at anything, not at his bully, not at the useless heroes, as his hands grip at the offending cloth, the thing not even budging of a millimetre, almost as if it was stuck against his skin, blinding him from the truth...

“ _Oh, do not be a hypocrite Me, the world would be a better place without him in it, wouldn’t it not? No more Kacchan hurting you and those around you, no more adults praising him for a Quirk he didn’t deserve, no more pain and suffering for you. All you need to do, is to just walk away, let someone else deal with this, and just... ignore what’s going to happen next. The heroes are already doing it after all, who are you to interfere? Is not like anyone else is going to care-”_

“S-shut up.” Izuku growls through gritted teeth, his other hand balling into a fist, “I don’t care who or what you are, or what kind of Quirk you are using on me to think this... this horrible things, but you are wrong! People would be devastated if Kacchan died, his parents, my mother, even me, and I don’t care if he’s a bully or he blew up my journal or doesn’t deserve to be a hero, No one deserves to die, not if someone can do something to stop it!”

“ _You are still naive and simple minded Me, no one is making you think any of this Izuku. I am You._ ” the voice says with a sigh, “ _We’ve heard All Might, you’ve heard your precious Kacchan’s words, Useless, Quirkless freaks like you, me, us will never become heroes, I’d have better luck in jumping off a roof and hope to be reborn with a Quirk in their next life, wouldn’t you? Just... move along, and start aiming at an easier, more realistic dream, and let others do the hero work.”_

Doubt starts settling in Izuku’s mind. After all, what can he do right now, realistically, that others have not done yet? What can he do, to save his best friend, his bully, when there are so many heroes around him uncapable to do just that?

The voice seems to grow pleased with izuku’s doubts.

_“Ah, I knew you were smart me. See, listen to yourself. I am you, and you are me after all, would you really reject yourself, reject the truest, darkest part of your being, maybe sacrifice your life even just to save someone who never really cared about you? Just… Let it go and ignore this. It’s not like anyone is going to care if some Extra dies today...”_

It all happens within a fraction of a second. Izuku’s hand grips the mask tightly, almost drawing blood from his face as the voice’s words settle in his mind, igniting an indignation, a fury he never knew he possessed, a revulsion at the very thoughts forming within his mind.

“I don’t care if you really are me.” He begins, tone deceptively calm as the mask, somehow, seemingly starts to give way, “Maybe you are. Maybe I have always thought these… horrible things, squashed down by years of abuse and bullying, but even if that was true? Even if I really wanted… Him to pay for what he has done to me?”

“No one deserves to die. Not even him.” He says, teeth grinding, fists tightening, blood flowing from his scrubbed cheeks and brow, “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

And then Izuku, sweet, mild, shy Izuku, overtaken with the sudden and inexplicable urge to spit on his invisible interlocutor’s face, (To spit against his own face?), is enveloped in a white, hot rage, building up inside him as the voice’s words, his words keep hammering on all the insecurities and doubts he had always had in his life, ever since he was diagnosed as Quirkless when he was just 4 years of age, all swelling, coalescing in 6, simple, wretched words.

 **_“We_ ** _will never become a hero.”_

It’s the final straw, rage and anger against the unjust world and the awfully unlucky life he had been born in converging within his very being, transcending his body as a faint smirk appears on Izuku’s lips.

“Oh yeah?” The mask gives way from above Izuku’s wide, almost bloodshot eyes in one last, final, satisfying act of spite, slowly transforming in one blue card, gripped tightly, painfully in his hands, the voice going away with it as time comes back from its vacation, resuming its normal pace as Izuku’s feet take a mind of their own and he starts, raggedly, desperately running toward the scene of Bakugou’s wet murder at his full speed, his backpack forgotten behind.

“Watch me!”

* * *

Izuku really had no memory of the velvet room after waking up that morning.

He had no memory of the strange man, the weird blue room, or the creepy choir that resonated within it, as he had no memory of anything he had told him that night, before the start of the rest of Izuku’s now, hopefully, not so miserable life.

He did, however, remember the dream he was having right before getting... invited inside the Velvet Room

He remembers the green, oh so green grass field, the one with the large tree under a cold, dark, sparkling sky, the weird fruits he had never seen before hanging from it. He remembers the nice… plump lady, towering over him in a white sundress and a wide, white hat, offering him a fruit, yellow eyes peering down at him with a playful gaze, big, round pupils overtaking most of them, filled with mirth and joy, her smile wide and comforting.

It felt… comforting, to be gazed upon by her, like he was being held by his mother, happy and not crying over the circumstances of his birth.

She breaks the fruit in half with her hands, and dark, red seeds start spilling from out of it like it’s a piñata, spilling, never ending from the broken fruit onto the grassy field beneath, strange flowers sprouting from them almost instantly, and almost as instantly withering away, filling the air with their sickly sweet smell.

He kneels, readily, at the woman’s feet, and brings his mouth to the spilling seeds, greedily savouring them as he laps and licks at the broken fruit, its seed entering his mouth as the taste overpowers him, his eyes opening wide and _glowing_ -

And then, suddenly, without warning, Izuku is inside the Velvet Room, panting, slightly drooling, and thirsty like he never felt before in his life, his mouth sealed shut, his brain still processing the previous images.

He can almost still taste the bittersweet aroma of the seeds he has swallowed, as his mouth forms one simple word, one he had never really heard before, not in this context at least, as he almost subconsciously throws the blue card gripped in his hand in front of him, mid-air as he was in his jump from the ground toward the Slime Villain’s exposed eyes.

He can almost hear the deep, rich laughter of the woman from his dream, as the card erupts in a burst of blue flame in front of his eyes, as the... knight (?) and his white horse (???) erupt from within it, larger than life, and strikes the Villain’s eyes with their lance.

As Izuku’s world finally changes forever.

In one. Single. Word.

“Persona!”

* * *

Izuku is in shock.

Or at least he hopes he is. Maybe his impromptu flight with All Might did leave more lasting damage than he thought, or maybe he was now passed out in that alley due to the lack of oxygen after almost getting chocked to death by a Slime Monster.

Would make way more sense than his current situation.

Thing is, here he was, with a, well, literal knight in not so shiny armour, white steed and all, on the edge of the local beach/garbage dump, moodily shuffling away from the mess he had managed to make with... Whatever the hell this thing was.

The heroes had taken it all in stride really. Unlicensed use of Quirks were against the law, yes, even in life or death situations, but none of the pro heroes really wanted to bring in the same kid who had managed to do their job for them while they were standing there like some useless, Quirkless civilians.

Izuku was just... too dazed to correct them over the fact that, well, he didn’t have a Quirk now didn’t he, but he had the good common sense not to push that line of inquiry, especially after the scolding some of the heroes had been giving him earlier, especially given the... very large proof that, maybe, by some weird twist of fate, he wasn’t as Quirkless as everyone thought, currently standing near him and... not really doing anything, not even after the large Bash he had just given the Slime Villain’s eyes with his thankfully dulled lance, leaving the boy just a tad winded in the process for some reason.

The poor villain was probably going to be missing an eye for the rest of his life, causing a mixed reaction within Izuku, of both relief, panic and some deep, grim satisfaction over both losing enough control over the strength of the Bash to maim the slime monster for life, BUT also still maintaining enough control over the thing not to do something he would have instantly regretted later.

After all, Izuku was serious when he said no one deserved to die, especially not when heroes were involved.

Not even the Slime Villain, would-be murderer of teenage boys as he was, now safely contained in yet another water bottle, shipped off to what Izuku assumed was going to be a nice and secure holding cell, waiting for his lawyer, or to wherever villains went after getting captured by heroes really.

He never really gave much thought about any of that now that he thought about it.

Still, Izuku thanked whatever god was out there for Bakugou having passed out due to almost getting drowned (How Ironic, Izuku thought later, for my Quirk to Manifest right as my childhood friend was drowning again), as paramedics carried him out to a nearby hospital, Izuku frowning in worry at the sight.

He was still concerned over his former best friend’s fate, yes, but he seriously didn’t want to deal with the fallout of him getting a Quirk and saving Bakugou (Would you imagine? Him, strong, arrogant, hero prodigy Bakugou, saved by him, Quirkless, Useless, Annoying Deku, who suddenly got a Quirk. Izuku’s limbs would have been blown by smithereens faster he could have said Persona), not right now at least, not knowing how would the... Strange Armor react to any potential threat against him.

For here he is, a couple minutes later, with the... bizarre being coming out of a card coming out of a mask that might or might not have been his Quirk all along, right at Izuku’s side and slowly clopping along as he makes his way away from the scene.

It seemed no Pro Hero really tried to stop either of them really, too busy as they were doing some damage control with the swarming press.

In any other situation, Izuku would have been ecstatic at the news, at the reveal that, yes, he did have a Quirk now, but in this one? Not really knowing what to do to deal with the… knight trotting alongside him like the world’s most clanging dog? Without any of his notebooks to deal with this outside of the one Kacchan had decided to ruin and destroy early that day?

Izuku was honestly unprepared to deal with all of this right now.

“Good Job?” He attempts to say after an awkward pause, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips as he is being stared down by the gangly suit of armour.

And that’s all it is really, Izuku has by now realized. A empty, walking (more like riding) suit of armour, battered and bent and even a bit rusty, a… empty void where the helmet should have been, as a wide brimmed metal hat floats in the approximate spot Izuku supposes the head should be, gangly limbs, joints more akin to a marionette than an actual armour bending awkwardly as the creature idly idles, a dulled, long wooden lance at his side.

The horse looks normal in comparison, if distressingly underfed, white mane sickly and tattered as the armour rides it bare, the poor beast clopping tiredly along.

The armour preens at Izuku prise, or at least he assumes he does, as Izuku’s frown deepens, the sound of waves reaching them as they arrive to the nearby beach and local illegal garbage dump.

“You- You can go now.” He begins with another nervous chuckle, already feeling the stares of the sparse onlookers around the particularly unbusy street a sunset, “Look, I’m very thankful for… helping me save Kacchan and all, even if I don’t know if that makes… you? me? Whatever, we’ve probably just become, like, vigilantes or something, even if the police didn’t really stop us from leaving, but can you please stop following me now? My mom freaks out easily and I don’t want you to scare her more than she already is after she probably got some of the news of the villain attack on Kacchan from the TV or worse, Aunt Mitsuki, I don’t want to give her a heart attack when she sees a- Whatever the hell you are.”

The horse neighs, and Izuku almost mistakes it as a laughter if it wasn’t so worryingly hollow as a sound, almost broken, and Izuku stops and turns, noticing how the… creature has now stopped, it’s rider puffing up his “chest” at Izuku’s words, seemingly offended, one hand on the dulled lance and waving it around, no actual sounds coming out from it even as the teen hastily raised his hands up in apology.

“L-look, I mean, no offense really this quirk seems really cool even if you should, like, take care of your horse better, but even if I’d have to explain it to her a weird stranger coming home with me so, like… I release you, you can go now, uhm… what’s your name anyway, Persona or something?”

Thankfully, the armour abruptly stops his posturing during Izuku’s muttered rationalizations, a weird… calm washing over it as it manages, somehow, to stare at Izuku despite lacking eyes or a face to do so.

“ **I am Thou.** ” It finally speaks, or at least Izuku assumes it’s speaking, voice echoey and reverberating in the hollow armour and so distressingly familiar to him, “ **And Thou art I.”**

A cold chill runs through Izuku’s spine at those words.

 **“From the seas of your soul I came, the Hollow Dream you are so ready to give your life for.** ” He starts reciting as blue flames start to slowly envelope the armoured knight, startling what few onlookers remained in the beachside road as they scattered away from it, “ **I shall aid you in your quest, our conviction unshakable even when frustrated by bitter reality.** ”

The flame burns bright, and where once stood a riding suit of armour, nothing else remains, no trace that he was ever there in the first place, not even a burnt mark on the floor.

Izuku stares, dumbfounded, as the same blue card, the one that had came out of the weird mask, starts… floating, spinning right in front of his eyes now, as if appeared from out of nowhere, Izuku’s hand already making a grab for it.

A frown appears upon Izuku’s brow as his fingers curl against the weird texture, bringing it closer to his eyes.

The card seems to be depicting the same knight from before, stylized as he was. It looks like it’s coming from one of those trading card games that used to be all the rage back before the dawn of Quirks, before the downfall of Hard Reality and other such technologies in the interregnum that caused the technological collapse in between a pre and a post shining baby world.

Izuku still remember the day he saw a bunch of them at an Ancient Egyptian Museum once, right on a display during a school trip, but the card in his hands right now looks nothing like those.

A Zero is written inside a circle on the upper left of the card, right before what he assumes is the name of the… Knight, Quixote as it is written, bold letters right above its (His?) image. Below it there are what Izuku assumes from what little he knows about games must be Quixiote’s stats, but without any frame of reference he doesn’t really know how… good or bad they must to be. He can assume what some of them are supposed to represent, and he idly takes note, hands itching from wanting to write down everything on one of his notebooks, how the EN and LU stats seemed to be way higher than the comparatively abysmally low ST, MA and AG ones.

Some sort of chart seem to be written further below, a “Strong” written below the “Physical” column, and a “Weak” below the “Wind” one, and it doesn’t take too much for Izuku to realize these must be some sort of resistance and weaknesses to the card, or maybe even potential elemental affinities to it.

Izuku, idly, realizes that this… this is way too stylized to be a simple quirk, to be the ultimate result of human biology, or at least hopes so, because if Quirks really started suddenly producing… such elaborate things just to appease one boy, if they started to operate on such shallow videogame or card game logic, especially to someone like him, whose deformity, whose Toe Joint should have by all intents and purpose marked him as biologically inferior to his peers, unworthy of a Quirk, suddenly getting such an elaborate one, seemingly out of sheer spite.

This could revolutionize the field of Quirk Study by decades. Or throw it all into chaos for another century of course, either way, it was an insanely huge discovery, one that needed to be documented and researched thoroughly.

Of course, this idle realization doesn’t do jack for Izuku’s mounting questions.

“What.” Izuku can only deadpan at the offending thing, gears still turning within his head as the hamsters running inside the wheels that aliment his brain are working yet another underpaid overtime.

The card is unresponsive, taunting him with its mere existence as he contemplates… everything that has just happened.

Izuku’s abysmally low self-worth rears his ugly head, descending on him and his hamsters and starting to beating the shit out of them, as the creeping, crippling doubt that this seems too good to be true, that there must be a catch to it, sinks its fang within Izuku’s thought process.

Why would HE be the first Quirkless teen managing to get a Quirk less than a year away from joining a Superhero University after all? The world didn’t work like that.

His life didn’t work like that.

Which meant the cases were two.

Either this was the result of the world most… contrived support item…

(A Mask that talked shit about you and rewarded you with a… summoning card? Are those even possible with today’s technology? How does that even work?)

Or Izuku, against all better judgement, did indeed have a Quirk that allowed him, of all things, to summon stuff from collectible card games’ cards, completely ignoring their status as a dead medium by a couple centuries give or take, which also happened to be some sort of… Invisible Quirk that managed to manifest, incredibly late, even despite his Extra Toe Joint, hence no one ever diagnosing him with it, cards he himself could seemingly create out of thin air.

Either cases seem really improbable for Izuku right now…

Izuku’s hamsters, battered and bloody as they were after the ambush, yet still working as they seriously start considering the possibility of unionizing before further overworking will slowly crush them to death, right as he tries to analyse all possible scenarios, all possible outcomes, a small, hopeful part of him being no bloody help at all as the siren song of the possibility that, yes, this was all his Quirk’s doing, who cared about the inconsistencies this was a dream come true, he had a Quirk, a damn cool one at that if he can outright summon shit from cards, even with the… trash talking mask being part of it, the sooner he accepted it the sooner he could start EXPERIMENTING on it like he had always wanted to do all his life, check the limits of his new Quirk, check if it does indeed work on all cards or only on this particular one, already planning a highly elaborate heist on the local museum for some reserves- Right as a shadow suddenly appears behind him, the teen too busy with his muttering to realize how deserted the street had gotten after the arm- Quixote’s disappearance.

“I AM HERE!” A booming voice startles Izuku from his revere of the card in his hands, the hamster in the by now overly prolonged metaphor stumbling and rocketing off their wheels and crashing on the ground as they all screech to a halt, the thing slipping from his hands and disappearing in a puff of blue smoke, going who knows where as Izuku tries and fails spectacularly to contain a terrorized yowl as he jumps and spins around, revealing none other than his childhood hero All Might.

Who instantly starts spewing out steam only to quickly deflate back into his far more skeletal and sickly form.

“… To offer you the opportunity of a lifetime!”

Unfortunately, the whole scene is then further ruined as All Might promptly begins to vomit out blood in front of a now even more freaked out Izuku.

* * *

“IZUKU!”

Izuku’s mom wails from the other side of his phone, the sloshing of her tears probably flooding their living room right now as Izuku distances his ear from his phone with a wince.

“IZUKU I WAS SO WORRIED MITSUKI CALLED ME KATSUKI GOT ADMITTED TO THE HOSPITAL OH GOD WHERE ARE YOU I COULDN’T STOP WONDERING WHAT IF YOU WERE THERE TOO OR IF YOU ALSO GOT ATTACKED BY THAT VILLAIN I KNOW HOW YOU AND KATSUKI ARE CLOSE IZUKU PLEASE WHERE ARE YOU NOW YOU ARE WORRYING YOUR MOTHER IZUKU WHERE-”

It has been going for… nearly a minute, and Izuku tries desperately to finally get a word in, if not for the sake of his eardrums, at least for the sake of their poor, definitely not waterproof floorboards.

“Mom. Mom please calm down,” Izuku tries to calm down his distraught parent with a nervous laugh, “I’m- I’m fine, everything’s fine. Listen, I have… so many things to tell you, and I’m going to do it when I get back home, but right now I’m having lunch with… a friend, yeah, let’s say a friend. We met a couple hours ago; We need to talk about-”

It’s like night and day. The wailing stops, the floorboards in his home creek an almost audible creak of relief as the flooding finally ceases and desists.

“A- New friend?” She interrupts him, tone suddenly sharp and focused, and a cold shiver runs down Izuku’s spine, “That’s… That’s nice dear. Do I know them? Are they from your class?”

Izuku’s brow furrows as he looks back behind him to All Might’s skeletal form, currently busy paying up the delivery girl that had brought them their lunch.

“You don’t really know them mom, I… I met them at a hero fight – No not the one Kacchan got injured at mom don’t worry – and we started talking about heroes and he’s really… cool, I guess. We’re having dinner together and talking about more heroes today…”

“Oh.” She says, mostly sighs really, and Izuku’s frown only deepens, “Oh. That’s… that’s nice, dear.”

She sounds uncertain, almost as if she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Izuku can’t really fault her for that.

“He also knows I-” _“Was”_ “-Am Quirkless,” He says, and he feels more than hears the gasp from the other end of the phoneline, “And… I can’t say they don’t care but they are not… being particularly… hurtful about it.”

That’s a lie, because he still remembers the burning sensation All Might’s words left in him when he told him he could never be a hero without a Quirk, but that was, like… hours ago, and Izuku was never one to hold a grudge for too long, just ask his childhood friend.

“Oh.” There is an audible sigh of relief, followed by some coughs as she composes herself, “Well, that’s nice to hear dear, you can stay outside with your new friend all you like, just be careful ok?”

“Yeah.” Izuku exhales his own sigh of relief at her words, releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding “Listen, I have to go the food arrived, I’ll see you later mom, I have… a lot of things to tell you about, bye!”

He barely registers his mother’s own bye before he ends the call and heads back to All Might the delivery girl having already gotten back to her scooter and sped away toward another delivery, leaving two still steaming bowls of meat on rice behind.

Izuku sits beside All Might on the bench overlooking the nearby beach, or at least what was supposed to overlook the nearby beach rather than the impromptu trash heap they were currently witnessing, blushing a little because, you know, he’s going to have dinner with THE All Might, even in this mockery of the human body he is currently inhabiting, that’s probably around his top 10 things to do before dying.

“Ayia Restaurants, they deliver good food all over the country with almost diabolical precision,” All Might explains awkwardly as he offers Izuku his bowl, eying him warily, “I… I hope this will be… enough for you. It’s been years since I’ve had functioning internal organs to process my food so I don’t really have a frame of reference for this...”

Izuku sobers up a little as All Might mentions his Injury, looking up at him as they start eating their bowls in silence. The taste and smell are HEAVENLY, and Izuku almost moans after the first bite, earning a chuckle from the pro hero at his side.

He’ll need to ask him for the restaurant number and have more of this… Ambrosia delivered to him.

No one is around the place as the sun keeps setting on the horizon, All Might steeling himself, his own bowl in his lap as he stops eating for a second.

“Did you lie to me?” He asks, tone neutral, and Izuku sputters and almost choke on the meat, both for the sudden question and for the sheer gal of suggesting he’d ever LIE to the SYMBOL OF PEACE of all people, “I mean… I mean was this a- a test by- Look, did a cantankerous old man tell you to tell me you were a Quirkless boy wanting to be a hero so he could-”

He’s rambling, Izuku can recognize the signs by now as he holds up his hands and tries to get a word in, his now half-finished bowl sitting in his lap.

“No no, god no I… I didn’t lie to you,” He says, and the words taste wrong in his mouth, lying to the SYMBOL OF PEACE, his childhood hero and all, “No one put me up to this, I really am Quirkless.”

All Might quiets himself for a second as his eyes squint at him.

“Are you sure about that?” He cautiously says with a frown, “Maybe you never got tested for it and never found out how to trigger it, or maybe you’re a late bloomer so you always assumed-”

“Nope.” Izuku says with way too much of a flippant tone to not really care about this, “I was tested at 4 and the doctor was… very through with it. I have the extra toe joint and all, I really am born Quirkless.”

Biology had been a cruel mistress to Izuku. Too many years he had spent researching the web for instances of Quirkless people spontaneously developing Quirks after a diagnosis, to listen to snake oil salesmen promising to develop incredible Quirks for some financial compensations, reading dumb Manga about Quirkless people getting run over by trucks and becoming overpowered chads in a different world…

No, he was Quirkless, and there was not really a possibility for him not to be otherwise, he knew that much at least.

Of course, this didn’t explain the walking, talking (?) suit of armour and the underfed horse he had managed to… Summon? Conjure? Call Out? Izuku lacked the proper terminology for such a feat really.

He feels the suspicious, squinted glare coming from All Might, and Izuku gulps at the sudden intensity of his gaze, suddenly realizing he had been muttering till now.

“Ok then, you’re Quirkless,” he says, his tone guarded, “Now, listen to me very carefully Young Midoriya. Did you, in the very small time between meeting me, and this… Quirk suddenly manifesting despite this denying all laws of biology we know as of today, meet with… any unsavoury types? Maybe wearing formal wear, white hair, a smile that screams “I club baby seals to death for sport” maybe?”

Izuku frowns, the description… almost matching someone he might know but not quite he thinks, a vague, hazy memory forming in his mind, “I… I’m not sure-”

All Might’s breath catches at the boy’s words, staring intently as his brows furrow deeper.

“Did he- have a long nose?” Izuku asks tentatively, some hazy figure finally taking shape, “Like, really long, so long you can probably assume it must be related to his Quirk or something-”

All Might gives him a hard, long look, Izuku shifting uncomfortably under his scrutiny, as he hums at the information, gesturing to him to go on.

“I… I don’t think I met him back then tho, more like… last night? Or maybe a couple weeks ago?” Izuku says, his hand going to his chin as he gets deep in thought, “Can’t really remember anything about him, I think he was, like… a dream or something…”

“You met **Him** in a dream last night?” All Might replies, tone horrified at the intricate ramification of such a simple statement, and Izuku’s frown deepens at his word, only to sudden blush violently as he remembers exactly what he dreamt of last night.

“I- I- I m- mean…” He stammers out, his cheeks redder than a tomato, “I d- don’t think you… you want t- to know what… s- silly dreams I was- I was having last n- night r- right?”

All Might gives him a perplexed look for a fraction of a second, long enough for the memory of his own years as a dumb teenager to get back into his life, a startles cough accompanied with some blood escaping his lips as he tries to compose himself.

“Y- You are right Young Midoriya, no need to… burden me with such knowledge, he probably wasn’t the one I was talking about anyway.” He pauses for a second, catching his breath back and giving Izuku a somewhat relieved smile, “And we must thank your lucky stars for that.”

Izuku frowns at his words, only for All Might to drop the issue all together.

“Still, if it wasn’t caused by… what I thought it was caused by, how do you explain…” All Might stops for a moment, before gesturing widely toward Izuku’s form, “Well, this, getting a Quirk at-”

“Seventeen.” Izuku offers up after All Might’s awkward pause, only to bristle a little at his incredulous gaze, “What?”

“Nothing.” All Might hastily claims, defiantly and pointedly ignoring Izuku’s surprisingly short and gracile stature.

“How about you tell what… triggered your Quirk then?” All Might says with a nervous smile, trying to divert the conversation back onto safer topics, “Maybe that way we’ll find out what caused it, or maybe even find ways to replicate it back, now that we are in a far more secure environment.”

“I… I don’t know really.” Izuku says with a frown, one hand coming out in front of him and… grasping at nothing, “One second, I was in that alley looking at Ka- At Bakugou getting… getting-”

He is NOT crying, even if he hiccups a little, but he can feel the man beside him shifting awkwardly at his distress.

He ignores the sudden pit in his stomach and powers on, like he has always done all his life.

“Anyway, I was… watching it happen, watching the heroes do nothing to save him, then next thing I know a… voice, my voice start talking to me, but it was weird, different, saying… lots of stupid things to me. I think it was goading me, trying to get me angry maybe, or maybe it was just… A bully. Wouldn’t be the first time I had to deal with one.”

All Might hums in thought at Izuku’s story, waiting for him to continue, the boy ignoring him by now as the floodgates open, having to say all of this to someone, and who better than the symbol of truth to listen to him.

“Then I noticed there was… a weird mask on my eyes I think, and I could tell the mask was where the voice was coming from, or at least I think it was? Anyway, I pull out the mask, and then, the card shows up in my hand where it once was, and I say this word, which I think I never even heard before-”

Izuku’s brows furrow in concentration as he recalls, exactly what he said as the card appeared in his hand…

“I think… I think it was- Per… So… Na…?”

A blue flame envelops his outstretched hand, startling both of them as Izuku stands up with a shriek, trying to put the fire out by desperately waving his hand around, All Might following soon after, their half-finished bowls falling from their legs and spilling into the ground, and Izuku would have been way more devastated about it had his hand not been on FUCKING FIRE.

Still, the flame subsides, and the weird card suddenly replaces it in his hand, unscathed despite the sudden burst of heat, glowing slightly.

Izuku and All Might stare dumbly at it.

“So… Vocal Activation.” Izuku says after a long while in a monotone, free hand twitching at his side, desperately begging him to grab a notebook and start writing, “At least to… call out the card, not sure about the actual summoning technique, I’ll need to get into one of those fancy quirk training gyms to check it out, god this is gona put a real dent onto my allowance-”

Izuku’s mouth snaps shut as he realizes he had started mumbling, looking back at All Might with a sheepish apology.

All Might’s eyes are still locked on Izuku’s card, glowing slightly, and Izuku almost startles at the intensity of his gaze onto it and his deep frown.

Izuku lets go of the card, as it slowly fades back into… whatever void it had come from, breaking All Might’s reprieve.

Suddenly, like he was never there, the contemplative All Might is gone, replaced by a far more jovial, if still skeletal one.

“Well, no matter. Regardless of the circumstances of your Quirk, Young Midoriya, you are now to decide what to do with this newfound opportunity!” He says, smile wide even in his skeletal form, and Izuku can’t help but wonder how genuine it actually was, “You have been given a great power, a power that also burdens you with a responsibility, the responsibility to prove me, and all the other people who ever doubted you, wrong!”

Izuku’s eyes widen at the impromptu, and he suspects also half plagiarized speech, but nothing prepares him for All Might’s next words.

“The responsibility to become the hero you have always wanted!”

“W- What?” Izuku stammers, eyes as wide as saucers, “But I- Wait, I thought you said I couldn’t be a-”

“Indeed I said that!” All Might hastily interrupts him, some sweat forming on his brow, “But you have now gained this new and mysterious Quirk of yours! As someone without a Quirk, even with the heroic spirit I saw in you when you so fearlessly launched yourself against that villain, you had little to no chances to actually survive the dangerous and life threatening world of Hero Business, but now? Now you can be a Hero!”

Izuku’s eyes widen and start sparkling at his words, mouth splitting into a large, open mouthed smile as his childhood dream, battered, burned and broken as it was, slowly getting back on its feet, ready to take on whatever new bullshit the world was gona throw at it.

All Might is not done yet, one skeletal hand going down on Izuku’s shoulder and gripping it.

“But it’s not over yet!” All Might continues on his monologue, “Your spirit is strong, young Midoriya, and has inspired me to spring into action! You will not just become a hero, Young Midoriya. You will become… THE hero!”

Izuku is not really listening to him, nor to his… weird monologue about inheriting quirks or 9 generations of heroism and all that jazz, his mind is too busy going a mile a minute, overjoyed by his hero, the pillar of peace himself, telling him that yes, he could be a hero.

He doesn’t even notice the tears of joy starting to stream down his cheeks.

Neither does All Might as he wraps up his speech.

“So, Young Midoriya…” All Might concludes with a dramatic pause, “What do you say… Do you want to become the next Pillar of Peace?”

And Izuku can only agree with him, still smiling wide, because yes, he has a Quirk now, he has the support of someone else other than his mom now, he can do anything!

He looks up at All Might, not in his full might, but in this skeletal, shattered form, giving him the hope and opportunities, he needed.

He can feel an inkling of… something, coming out of the man, toward him.

He can feel, deep within him, something shifts, a weird pull coming from deep within him, toward the man in front of him.

Time slows down to a crawl, much like it did before, as a voice, so unlike the one he heard before, when he acquired his persona, starts blasting in his hears, echoing deep within his very soul.

**“Thou Art I… I am Thou… You have forged a new Bond... It shall bring you closer to achieving your dreams.”**

Izuku eyes widen as another, blue card, different from the one he had called out before, appears in front of his very eyes, an unaware All Might still smiling in front of him.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana.”**

The voice stops, the card fades, slowly sinking inside his chest, as time slowly gets back to its normal speed, a still waiting for his answer All Might expectantly staring at him.

Izuku’s eyes are wide, his enthusiasm suddenly cracked after the weird experience.

“W-well?” All Might asks, suddenly bashful, removing his hand from Izuku’s shoulder.

Izuku blinks, his mind getting back to the previous conversation, and a new, sudden energy fills back into his body, momentarily ignoring the weird voice and the card as he smiles at his hero.

And accepts his offer with a smile.

This is the end of the worst day of Izuku’s life.

And the start of his journey to come.

In truth, not even he knows what repercussions will his choices have after today, the bonds he will forge, the powers he will unleash.

All he knows, is that whatever hardship, whatever trial he’ll have to face to achieve his dream, to fulfil his desire…

Midoriya Izuku will not stop at nothing to achieve it.

No matter the cost.


	2. Jester Arcana: Rank I; Fool Arcana: Rank II.

Midoriya Izuku really, **really** , _really_ doesn’t want to have his limbs torn apart from his body in an explosion of blood and gore.

It’s a common sentiment to have really, or at least common for anyone with a modicum of self-preservation, and despite all evidence on the contrary Izuku does have a smidge of it in him. So, when his childhood hero and current mentor told him about the… unfortunate side effect passing down his semi-mythical Quirk onto him might have had he remained in his limp, weak noodle body before receiving it, Izuku had been really eager… not to have any of that happen to him.

Which brings us to this nice and sunny Saturday, right in into one month into his training, as he attempts the titanic task of cleaning up the illegal garbage dump that was Dagobah Beach.

He was making hardly making a dent on it as he was, even as his body was sore and his spirit was battered down by the sheer volume of trash piled around the beach after years and years of loitering and the sea taking her grim revenge on Humanity for their hubris by sending them back all the trash they dumped in her over the centuries tenfold.

So, here he was, taking a short, microscopic break, lying down on the surprisingly soft texture of the small, minuscule fraction of beach he had managed to clear, heavy breaths coming out of him as the sand stuck onto his drenched body, not really caring about the odd sensation of it as he can still feel his bones and muscles aching and burning within him, a broken refrigerator, the last trial he had to pass in this never ending battle against capitalism’s hubris, currently on its way to the local recycling plant alongside some other, miscellaneous trash, and the skeletal form of All Might, a steaming bowl of meat, half finished, sometimes the only companion he had left in those exhausting moments of his life.

He still had some time before getting back to the grueling work, deciding to spend it by lazily, tiredly looking toward the sea and the clear sky above, small clouds floating above it, the whole scenery unfortunately ruined by the towers of trash blocking most of his sight away from the clear waters outside of the muddy, garbage filled shore, as well as the distressing amount of seagulls and other opportunistic birds circling around right above him, or perched on top of each mountain of waste, as if they expected him to keel over any second.

Izuku grunts, wiggling a little least the lot of them got any bright idea over the eventual tastiness of his corpse’s eyeballs, before standing back up, some sand falling off him as he contemplates the herculean task still ahead of him.

Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully, his depression meal courtesy of the Musutafu’s very own Aiya Restaurant is not his only companion in the small, precious moments All Might is away shipping off the garbage he managed to collect, his Persona a constant companion in his journey to better himself, even now as he simply produces his new Notebook and pen from Gods’ Know Where and starts scribbling some new information on it straight out what little discoveries he had managed to make on his quirk that day.

Indefatigable to a fault, Quixote had been… Izuku wouldn’t really say helpful, not really, but the least he could say was that he sure believed in… whatever the hell he was doing, and was still doing right now, the gangly suit of armour possessing such an unwavering faith in himself and, weirdly enough, Izuku, that he had never questioned once his… Master? Quirk Holder? Well, Izuku’s orders of simply… beat the living shit out of those agglomerates of garbage that were still far too big or far too numerous to be properly attended to with Izuku’s own limited time, stamina and strength.

Task he was still eagerly accomplishing, a subtle tiredness seeping within Izuku’s bones and promptly ignored, even if with mixing result, as it was clearly shown by the Persona currently getting overwhelmed by yet another tower of garbage he had toppled with all his might, much to his horse’s apparent Hilarity several paces away.

Still, even despite how… puny and witless the thing seemed, barely managing to score anything above the most standard human man during the physical assessments he had to have Quixote gone through during the Quirk Registration, Izuku was still really glad of how thing had been going as of late.

After all, things could have gone way worse when it came to his quirk, and how people around him reacted to it.

For starters, his mother had taken the sudden appearance of his Quirk in stride. Didn’t even freak out as much as he expected her to when he did show her exactly why he was so excited that morning, right after Bakugou’s incident with the Slime Villain.

For one thing, she didn’t faint nor break down crying at all. No, the woman had taken one, long look at her now nervous son, showing her the boasting animated armour that had come out of his card, the horse awkwardly mulling around their now far too narrow living room, and as the woman was suddenly faced with the undeniable proof that there was now nothing stopping her beloved first born from becoming an actual hero, potentially endangering himself and dying in the line of duty due to his, again, weak, limp noodle body as All Might had put it, she didn’t, like Izuku had feared and almost expected, spiral into Alcoholism to cope with it.

No, Midoriya Inko had taken her son sudden appearance of a Quirk surprisingly well. She only screamed once.

She did, however, sue his former pediatrician over his old diagnosis as Quirkless, right after all the painstaking bureaucratic procedure they had to go through to have his new Quirk recognized on the official national registry. The settlement money was good, as was Government “Hush Money,” right as the medical exams they had to go through to prove his claim did reveal the presence of the infamous extra toe joint, the thing that had marked him for all of his life as a Quirkless, Useless Deku, despite the very clear, very existing proof that he did, in fact, have a Quirk even despite of that.

Let’s just say, the Hero Commission didn’t want for the news to spread too much too fast, at least till they had managed to run more tests on more Quirkless samples, before releasing any sort of official statement over the possibility that, yes, Quirk Genetic Theory had actually been wrong all along, and the most common sign for someone being Quirkless, the Mark of their Genetic Inferiority in the eyes of society, might have been in fact be a Hoax.

Izuku did understand that, deep down, especially when he considered the possible consequences such a reveal might have had on the Quirkless community within the country, without even mentioning the waves and ripples such a reveal might cause onto the various extremists groups on all sides of the spectrum, or even worse, the Stock Market.

So, Midoriya Inko and her Son were now a little bit richer than before. All they needed to do now, was keep their mouth shout over the original diagnosis, and simply claim doctors had never found any extra toe joint within his feet, and had claimed all along Izuku must have had a Quirk, and was simply not manifesting it, as the Commission tried their hardest to pull the whole… incident under the rug.

Which meant Izuku couldn’t really be seen around his old high school too much, even despite this being his final year. Thankfully, the new influx of funds, as well as the not so subtle government pressuring, meant his mother could now finally transfer him away from… all the mess of his old school, and the baggage that that brought, and have him be home-schooled for his final year, before the system gladly swallowed him back up into a hero academy or another, where no one would have known about his now hastily erased from the records condition.

Izuku, his school nor his mother had really nothing to say against it.

He was smart and had already gone far on the year’s program by himself anyway, so it wasn’t like he was missing much in terms of academics.

A small part of Izuku was saddened for the sudden lack of interaction with other people his age, especially given the nagging feeling in the back of his head that he was forgetting something, but he greatly preferred his new solitude to the absolute hell that all his school years have been.

Especially since he could now train with All Might all he desired without having to worry about focusing on hiding any of it from school or, worse, Bakugou.

Izuku was actually pretty content with this outcome, that way he wouldn’t feel too bad about lying further down the line when One for All was finally able to be passed down on him without the risk of his limbs exploding, and in fact gave him enough plausible deniability in case someone actually observant started asking too many questions about it, especially given the… bizarre nature of his quirk.

Registering and analyzing it with the proper authorities had been extenuating.

They had ended up calling it Persona, like the activation phrase he had for the summon. It was classified as an Emitter Quirk, but then again almost everything was classified as an Emitter Quirk these days, especially given how broad and common the definition for it was, and was included within the Familiar Subtype, a rare type of Quirk that allowed the holder to develop some sort of symbiotic relationship with some sort of other, separate entity from themselves.

Again, He had needed to demonstrate the capabilities of his Quirk during the various evaluation tests, allowing him to understand Quixote and his card a bit more. The Persona had not said another word ever since the first time he had disappeared in blue flames, preferring to go for wide, almost manic gestures, or surprisingly expressive neighs from the horse.

Izuku was contemplating the possibility to teach the two of them, for the horse seemed to be as much sentient if not more so than her Rider, some sort of non-verbal communication, such as Morse code or Sign Language, if not outright writing and reading skills.

The two entities seemed to be separate enough, even if they came out of the same medium, and could apparently be separated from each other. A further examination of their card had revealed the ability to shift it into a “second card” if Izuku where to “swipe” it to the right as if it was a digital phone, the second card still showing the Persona, but with new statistics, such as the number 4 for what Izuku assumed was the Persona’s “Level,” as well as two names on it such as Bash, Skewer and Rebellion on a table of contents beneath the card art, probably some sort of commands or moves, alongside 6 more empty spaces, Izuku assumed for other such names, as well as a 9th space on the left of the new table reading Rakukaja, the number 6 beneath it alongside several other small boxes with a question mark written on it.

Simply thinking or saying said moves’ name, usually with the intent of using them on a specific target, be it Izuku himself or someone else, allowed the young man to impart those “Moves” as commands to his Persona, who did however act relatively independent from him outside of such direct calls when summoned.

Bash was enough straight forward to understand, and was in fact the move Quixote had used to blow out the Slime Villain’s eye back then, as was Skewer a simple lunge with the lance over the, well, bash of the other move, the Persona’s lance glowing in faint green aura during each attack. Both moves seemed to use Izuku’s stamina in order to work, however, while the third move, more obscure in its effect, seemed to have a limited amount of uses, Izuku wondering if it was using some sort of secondary fuel outside of his own stamina to make it work, or if it was simply a fixed amount of uses between each time he slept, like in those, pen and paper old role playing games his mom used to play with him with.

Rebellion’s effect had been mysterious till that morning, seemingly able to target either himself or someone else, one at the time, and shrouding them with some bright light for a second, without seemingly any sort of effect on them.

After a lot of trials to check what the thing actually did, Izuku had, appropriately, lucked out on it right that day, as he was scribbling on his notebook right that second, when he had accidentally dropped the generous tip he was planning to give out while paying for his depression meat bowl, much to his embarrassment, only earning one solitary and unimpressed eyebrow raise from the usually stoic delivery girl for his effort as he gave a quick apology and dropped down to get back the fallen coins, only to remember that Rebellion was technically still up if he still remembered the apparent time limit between times he could cast it back on himself with some effect, and find all of his coin having fallen down and landed exactly on their edge.

A first assumption, as Izuku now documented on his journal, was that Rebellion seemingly altered the laws of causality for the one it was casted upon, as it was later proven, once he had finally tipped the delivery girl after she had just witnessed his small freak out and a second, impromptu coin toss landing once again on the edge, by a series of secondary experiments while eating his bowl of meat, before Rebellion’s effect worn off.

A power like that could become really useful during hero work, especially when dealing with possible crises, if it could affect the luck of everyone he just needed to cast it on, say, hostages in a hostage situation so that no harm could come to them, that is if the effect was as powerful as he assumed. After all, it was a long shot from “landing several coins on their edge without even trying” to “being so supernaturally lucky villains start slipping on banana peels and get themselves stuck inside manhole for the authorities to arrive,” he still needed to check the limits of this ability, as well as discover what new powers his quirk could give him.

Still, it was a big break in his understanding of his quirk, and a pretty important one, which meant his depression meat bowl had hastily turned into a celebratory one by the time he had started eating it, his appetite waning due to the excitement and the desire to experiment more, as well as the mysteries that still plagued his mind.

Izuku had absolutely no idea what Rakukaja was even supposed to mean, and was seemingly unable to activate it, probably meaning he did need to reach the level written beneath it to do so.

And that was the crux of his current problems. How the hell is he even supposed to “raise” his persona’s level?

Destroying trash, or at least rendering the bigger chunks of it to more manageable size, as Quixote had apparently volunteered himself doing once, he had let him out the first day of beach cleaning, wasn’t doing much for him. In the time he had started training till now, in barely a month, Quixote had not gone up a single level, even now as he tried his best to keep the knight outside as much as he could, train him, bond with him, have him help out, even despite the various drawbacks.

Apparently, he and the knight shared some sort of link between each other. Hurting Izuku or Quixote (Or hurting Izuku or Quixote’s Horse for that matter) seemingly hurt the other, but at the same time Izuku had now developed some sort of resistance to most forms of physical harm, more evident when the Knight was out and about, much like Quixote seemed to possess according to his card, but was at the same time way more… susceptible to strong wind currents, as well as most wind based Quirks, easily losing his balance if he wasn’t too careful.

It was a double-edged sword, but one that gave him a clear advantage over more physical opponents in his future career as a hero, especially if he were to also master All Might’s Quirk alongside his own.

Izuku sighs, deep in thought, looking up at Quixote as he raises his arms in the air and poses, one feet on top of the finally defeated pile of trash, as if the nonexistent knight was bathing in the cheers of an equally nonexistent crowd.

Izuku is almost driven to facepalming, managing to contain the sudden urge with a simple groan as he cringes at the sight.

Thankfully enough, there seem to be no one there on the trash filled beach but the birds to witness any of this.

“Oi, are you going to finish that or something? It’s been a solid hour since you stopped eating and we’re kind of starving over here mister, are you going to be done with it soon or do you want to rub your food wasting ways in our beak some more?”

“Uh, oh, yeah, sorry, I was just-” Izuku stops mid-sentence, the words finally registering in his mind as his eyes blow wide, a startled yelp escaping him as he jumps back onto his feat, meat bowl clattering slightly but thankfully not spilling, as he starts looking around him with wild, frantic head shakes, finding no possible source for the seemingly disembodied voice, the piles of trash around him looming slightly, some of the birds now eyeing their possible future carrion meal with some alarm after his sudden sprout of vitality.

Izuku gulps, slowly, before giving some final fearful looks around his empty surroundings and asks the only question he can think of now.

“G-God?!”

A voice directly to his lower left laughs… No, it doesn’t laugh, it caws, as Izuku turns, slowly, looking down at his feet, the only non-trash related entity in his general vicinity currently being a particularly underfed raven, still cawing what looks suspiciously like a laughter of some sort.

Izuku can only stare in disbelief as the raven regains a semblance of self-control and coughs a little of all things _(“Can ravens even cough_?”), before getting back at staring at him with black, beady eyes, as if nothing had happened.

Izuku almost ignores and forgets the fact he thinks he has just been mocked by a bird of all things, before the blasted avian menace decides against all better judgement to start talking to him.

Because of course the raven decides against all better judgement to start talking to Izuku of all people.

“Yeah, no, that was mad funny, but in all seriousness, can you share all that meat or something? We are all starving here, which means it’s either gona be that bowl you still have there or your eyeballs, your choice.”

Izuku, who on a clearer mind would have debated more over the pros and cons of losing his eyeballs over losing the absolutely divine Aiya certified Meat Bowl, doesn’t even say a word as he simply pushes the half-finished bowl away toward the talking bird with a foot, staring at it with wide, stunned eyes.

The bird descends on it with after a split second, followed soon after by the other birds, Izuku scrambling away from them as they feast on his leftovers, before the lot of them, seemingly satisfied with what scraps they had left, fly away from it with the same speed they had descended on it, leaving only a now a cleaned out empty bowl, wiggling a little from the sudden assault, and the talking raven from before, now seating on the sand, beak open and cawing in delight.

And indeed it was seating, as if it was a bipedal creature or a western cartoon from the holden days, a position his body should have never allowed to happen, and Izuku can’t help but keep staring at the sight, feathery butt down and claws extended on the soft sand in front of it.

The Raven burps as he looks up at Izuku, and it decides now is a good time to stare back at the young man, as if he was the world most feathered abyss.

“What?”

“You are a talking Raven.” Izuku states the obvious, as if saying it will make it any less weird, hands already starting a new page on his new notebook, still clutched in his hands, and scrawling something all over it.

Izuku feels more than sees the Raven rolling his eyes, as he plops back onto his feet from his sitting position.

“Well, yeah, I’m not a writing desk now, aren’t I?” He points out with a caw, promptly accompanied by a second eyeroll, “Asian women can turn into European dragons, Catboys exist and are enlisted in the police force, and you are amazed by the possibility of a talking raven?”

He flaps his wings at a still amazed Izuku, black feathers falling down the damp sand, “Yeah I just talked, and I am continuing to do so. Get a grip of yourself boy and-”

The raven stops mid-sentence, the feathers above its eyes furrowing slightly as he suddenly grows… very wary for some reason, as if some primal, ancient instinct in his bird brain has started screaming in alarm all of a sudden, exactly as he notices the sparkle in Izuku’s eyes, the young man almost vibrating on the spot as he can barely contain himself, before dropping down in a squat so to be eye level with the poor bird, the mouth opening up like some maw of hell and vomiting out a stream of questions toward the poor, unsuspecting talking raven.

“Oh my gosh an Animal with a Quirk those are super rare even rarer than Quirkless people who are you do you have a name some sort of sentience that allows you individuality what about the other birds can they talk too can you talk to them wait wait does that mean non-talking animals are also sentient oh my god that would be INSANE that would destroy the meat industry if it ever came out holy crap can you do anything else outside of talking like, I’ve heard Corvids are really intelligent does your Quirk expand that, are you self-taught or did someone teach you basic grammar hold on hold on how smart are you actually I should have a IQ test here somewhere for sentient creatures, I was planning to use it on Quixote but-”

The raven stares at him with wide, unblinking eyes, waiting for Izuku, now out of breath to momentarily stop his stream of consciousness so that he could get a couple words in edgewise.

“Calm... Calm down boy” The raven says with an almost nervous caw, before moving his head away from him and beginning to mutter under his breath, “Jeez, we got a lively one this time.”

He caws back, resettling himself and puffing up his feathered chest, having finally regained the attention of a now embarrassed Izuku, butting in before he could start apologizing over the word vomit or, worse, get back to it.

“Well, at least I’m glad you’re talking this better than most other… humans, when I tried to talk with someone last month the bastard almost stabbed him with a knife, kids nowadays with their sharp toys I swear, back in MY days we were lucky to have even just a stick to defend ourselves from an angry mob, now everyone with their fancy Quirks and their cool Support Items thinks they are Neo Featherman’s second coming, stab a bird just because he was asking for directions, the nerve of some people I swear…”

Izuku finally manages to catch his breath back, a faint blush growing on his freckled cheeks as he sheepishly starts scratching the back of his neck with a chuckle.

He contains his enthusiasm and attempts fewer questions this time.

“Who… What are you?” Izuku asks first, already by now having designed a character sheet for the raven and sketched his likeness on it without ever removing his eyes from him “Like, do you have a name or something? Are you just a human who can turn into an animal or-?”

“Eh, no idea.” The raven interrupts him with the closest thing to a shrug he can do, “I’ve always been this way, or at least I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember, and trust me kid, is a really long time, so I don’t really know... WHAT am I.”

“As for names…” The crow says with a frown, looking around the beach, “Never really been asked for one, so I guess you, specifically, can call me… Remus. Yeah, Remus is fine, Remus is a good name to give someone.”

“Remus?” Izuku asks with a frown, mulling the name a bit.

“What? Is a nice name you know, very topical if you ask me” The Raven, Remus Izuku assumes, replies with a defensive tone, “Or what, did you want me to call myself Nevermore or some shit?”

“No no, Remus is fine,” Izuku says as he rises his hands in surrender toward the angry bird, earning a satisfied gasp from him in the process, “I was just… expecting you to have a real name or something, do Birds don’t have names?”

“Nope.” The bird answers, the popped p sounding incredibly weird when obtained via the use of a beak, “Names are a human thing really, we birds don’t really need to call each other anything outside of Bastard, so we never really cared about that shit.”

The Raven’s gaze sharpens as he glares back at Izuku, who had by then taken a seat in front of him from his squat, all the while still eagerly writing everything the bird is saying down on his notebook.

“Well, no matter, getting back to the… meat of the situation, so to speak” the Raven says with a hum leading into a caw, “You’ve been hanging around my turf for a while, and this majestic bird of yours couldn’t help but notice you lacked… proper control over that big lump of metal and horsemeat over there. The big lug that’s been training you into the ground is fine on his own don’t get me wrong, but it pains this raven’s soul to see such a promising persona user so unprepared in using their Quirk, that I can’t help but butt in.”

Izuku’s eyes widen, the Raven seemingly unperturbed by his astounded reaction as he begins marching up and down in front of him with another caw.

“I want three meat bowls per week, on Sundays, the day you are free from that big lug of yours from what I’ve seen, two for me, one to keep away the other bastards, those vultures. You do that, and I’ll use all my infinite wisdom and charming good looks to help you out with that Persona of yours, we’ll get him in tip top shape faster than you can say “Black Frost that Knows Auto-Sukukaja.”

Izuku blinks, barely processing the offer within his poor, tired brain, the Hamsters running his wheels having finally unionized after those 5 long months and starting their strike right now.

“So, what do you say kid?”

“You… You know about my Quirk?”

The Raven rolls his eyes again, “Of course I do boy. You know Quirks are recursive and shit, right? How they are all different yet alike in the end? Why the hell wouldn’t there be other Persona Users in the long history of Quirks? You are not that special you know?”

Izuku blinks, his eyes going back toward Quixote, his persona, who had finished in his “training” and had gotten back to him, “staring” at the scene in front of him alongside his horse.

“Jeez, and I thought I finally got a smart one-” The raven grumbles under his beak again, only to be interrupted by Izuku as he drops in front of him, startling the bird as the young man makes a grab for him, Remus narrowly dodging him in the process.

“Can you really help me out with this?” He repeats, not really believing his sudden luck.

Maybe Rebellion really was able to make miracles like he thought.

“Of course I-“ The Bird stops with a groan, seemingly interpreting Izuku’s disbelief with distrust on his part, “Ugh, OK, fine, first lesson free since you seem nice enough: the reason why you are not making any progress over neither training that thing nor cleaning this beach is because you are exercising no control over that scrapheap on hooves. Your stamina is abysmal, and you waste your mana pool as if you don’t know it’s there casting useless luck buffs on yourself without even trying to win the lottery with them or something.”

The raven flaps up, pocking Izuku’s brow with a claw and miraculously not drawing any blood, a faint ow escaping his lips as he retreats a little away from Remus.

“You need muscle mass first as well as some endurance before actually starting to train your Persona properly, which you can’t do while you still have the dumbass out and about attacking piles of trash.”

Izuku shrinks a little under the raven’s criticism but understands the… basics of what he’s saying.

He doesn’t know if he can trust… a random, talking raven he had just met on some beach filled with trash and extorted most of his lunch money for the coming months from him, but at least he seems to know… anything about his Quirk, or at least more than he does.

And he’s offering his help to him.

It’s the occasion of a lifetime. The second Occasion of a lifetime for Izuku, all in the span of a couple months.

He’d be an idiot if he didn’t accept it.

A wide smile appears on his lips as he can’t believe his ears, nodding eagerly at the raven’s offer, earning a pleased caw from Remus.

“So, I’ll take that as a yes,” He says with another caw, “Good, good, from what I’d seen from you and the big lug trapped inside the corpse’s body, you’ll need all the help you can get.”

Izuku blisters a little, not really at the not so veiled insult toward his hopelessness as much as the one the raven has indirectly aimed at All Might, but lets it go for now.

“Oh yeah, before I forget it, let’s start things early this time around” The Raven says with another shrug, before offering his black wing to Izuku to shake, “This to the start of a fruitful partnership, Wildcard”

Izuku blinks for just a second, before cautiously offering his hand to the talking raven and shaking his wing, the… title seeping inside his mind, as if it’s supposed to mean something to him.

As he does so, he can feel something pulling from within him, a strange, warm feeling, not unlike the same he felt months ago when he accepted All Might’s offer, as time slows once again back to a crawl.

**“Thou Art I… I am Thou… You have forged a new Bond... It shall bring you closer to achieving your dreams.”**

The same voice from before starts booming the same intonation, right as another, different card appears in between them, spinning.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Jester Arcana.”**

The card, drawn in the same style of the one he got from All Might, sports another Zero beneath it, as it depicts some medieval court jester, their dress a patchwork of colours, as it seemingly sings and dances over a grave of some sort. The card spins some more, before sinking back inside Izuku’s chest, fusing with the weird pull he felt before and settling within him.

Time runs back to its proper flow, as if nothing had happened, and Izuku would probably believe it had never even happened, like he had tried to do for the one time it also happened with All Might, had it not been for the warm feeling within his chest, or the weird, knowing twinkle in the raven’s eyes as he stares back at him, right before liberating his wing from Izuku’s hand and cawing back at him.

“Well, with that out of the way, let’s begin the first phase of our training kid! Call back that iron eyesore you call a persona and get back to work on this beach, you lazed around enough with this old feather bag, I want you to at least have removed an entire garbage tower before the Big Lug shows up and starts vomiting his entrails on it or something, you need to recuperate the lost time and fast!” The raven barks, Izuku promptly springing back to his feet, wordlessly reducing Quixote back into his card and making it disappear before it even reaches his hand back, right as he gets back to work, his vigour and spirit suddenly renewed.

The Raven Sighs as he sees the young man leave, tackling the trash that Quixote had managed to “defeat” beforehand, a small, pensive caw escaping his beak.

“Eager to learn aren’t we,” the Raven hums, a tired, melancholic chuckle escaping his beak, “A potential holder of One for All becoming a Wildcard. How… delightfully unexpected.”

Remus gives out another small, pensive caw, a hint of… something, maybe nostalgia, maybe regret, tinging his cawing voice.

“Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe this time- Maybe this time we’ve finally found someone to fix the mess we made…”

A honking from behind them reveals All Might’s return, pleased to see his disciple still hard at work despite him being away as he trudges down the beach, not even noticing the black raven as he flew back up, high into the sky, away from the duo.

“Maybe… maybe this time he won’t die to you, he won’t die for me…” The raven grumbles to himself with another caw, chocked, more strained, “Maybe- Maybe the ninth time will be the right one, maybe he will finally be enough, maybe this time you will be stopped for good-”

The crow stops himself mid-sentence and gives out a chocked caw, almost a sob, as if not even he can believe his words right now.

“Yeah, right, Or maybe you’ll just kill this one again, and the cycle will begin anew, who knows,” He grumbles as he departs towards his nest, winds caressing his feathers, “After all these years, An old man can dream, dear brother.”

“An old man can dream.”

* * *

The months fly by, like pages of a book being hastily turned, and before Izuku knows, the beach is finally cleaned, and he’s a couple days away from having to take the infamous UA entrance exams.

He is NOT freaking out about it.

That is not him deflecting, for once in his miserable life, no, he is actually really not freaking out about anything, his almost perpetual state of a terrorized rabbit being held at gunpoint in front of an angry wolf temporarily replaced by the almost childlike wonder of the beautiful sight in front of him, the clean beach, suddenly filled with life.

“Ah, those are the true rewards of heroism,” His mentor, his childhood hero, All Might says with a content sigh, as they stare back at the cleaned beach with a content sigh “Not the fame, the glory, or the money, but the quiet feeling of having been able to do something good for the world. Take it in, Young Midoriya, for this will only be the beginning of your fruitful career as a Pro Hero!”

Midoriya turns toward him with his now ever-present bright smile, almost blinding all might with it in the process, as he produces his smartphone from one of his pockets.

“And not just that, look upon the fruits of your training!” All Might says with a bellow, miraculously managing not to cough up any blood this time, “This is the picture of yourself before we started, a limp, noodle-like boy, a shrimp in human clothing, a broccoli headed Smurf if you will-”

Izuku cringes a little at All Might’s comments, but he doesn’t really fault him for, well, any of that.

Looking at his pictures from 10 months ago, he does indeed look puny.

“And now, look upon yourself!” A second photo, one of many he had took during his training, like an eager helicopter mom with their beloved hellspawn, revealing a now more recent one, at the end of Izuku’s training.

Izuku is drenched in sweat, a satisfied smile on his face as he stands in front of a now cleaned beach, greedily drinking off a water bottle in just a wife beater and some slacks. While training could do nothing for his poor height, it did at least shape him up nicely, not managing to build up any sort of too overt muscle, but still revealing some relatively impressive arms and muscles, as well as his toned legs after months of runs for the sole purpose of bettering his abysmal stamina.

He wasn’t as buff as All Might while in his full might of course, but he wasn’t slacking either, the young man really… comfortable with his new and improved physique.

Quixote is there, flexing in the background his nonexistent armour muscles, as if he knew he was about to have a picture taken of him, finally allowed back out of his cards after years of endurance training under Remus, who on his part had somehow also managed to photobomb the picture, resting on top of Quixote’s poor horse’s head and staring directly on camera.

All Might doesn’t seem to notice it, nor does he seem to notice the snickering raven hiding up a nearby lamppost and staring down at them, as he keeps on gushing on Izuku’s progress.

“Now, Young Midoriya, you are finally ready.” All Might says finally with a solemn tone, “Your body is ready to become a vessel for One for All”

Izuku’s eyes widen, not really believing his hears.

“R-Really?”

“Yes!” All Might lies with the ease of a practiced conman, “I am 90% certain that receiving my Quirk right as you are now will NOW blow any of your limbs up Young Midoriya. It might… pulverize your bones if you were to activate too much of it all at once yes but trust me, I am 85% sure you will NOT die today.”

Izuku’s cheer takes a slight dip downward as he heroically ignores the snickers from the raven above him.

It’s been 10 months under Remus training over his control of his persona, and while he and Quixote have been particularly in synch for a while, and his stats on the card had seemingly been raised during it, there was still no sight of him leveling up.

The UA entrance exam for the Heroic Course had abysmally law entrance rates.

He needed One for All, at least as a crutch to use alongside his own Quirk. And he couldn’t let All Might down after he spent all this time training him for this.

So, Izuku steels himself, rationalizing that if All Might’s quirk ends up killing him, he will not really hold a grudge on him over it.

He’s ready for anything, he’s ready to sacrifice everything of his, even his limbs, even his life, if it meant he had a shot at achieving his dream.

His resolved steeled, Izuku barely misses as his mentor, his childhood hero, All Might, hastily plucks _something_ off his ratty, barely washed and conditioned mane of blonde hair with a hand and offers it to him.

“Now, Young Midoriya,” All Might says with the solemnity and the finality of a sealed coffin, “Eat my hair, and receive the power of All for One!”

Izuku stares at the disgusting hair in front of him, his steel resolve almost crumbling and crashing down right at the first hurdle, before he takes a deep breath, grabs at it, and, finally, swallows All Might’s blonde strand without even asking why.

As he gulps with some difficulty the hair, the awful aftertaste still lingering in his mouth, Izuku feels… something shifts within him, right as All Might stares attentively at him.

His… limbs are not blowing up at the moment, so there’s that at least, but still, it feels… weird, different from how he felt the first time with All Might or Remus, when he forged his bonds with them, yet extremely similar.

After a while, everything settles within him, a small burp escaping his mouth and soliciting a relieved breath out of the Number One Hero in front of him.

“You’ve Taken it in surprisingly quickly Young Midoriya!” All Might compliments him with a proud smile, “You have now become part of an ancestral legacy, Midoriya Izuku, Ninth holder of One for All. I hope, no, I am sure of it, that this will be only the beginning of your fruitful legend, as the future number one hero!”

Izuku, stomach still slightly unsettled, can’t help but stare up at his mentor’s words, right as, feeling the pride he seemingly had for him, his disciple, his descendant, deep within himself.

Time slows to a crawl, unexpectedly for Izuku, as All Might’s card, the Fool Arcana, here depicting a skeletal man less wandering inside and more leaping right into a sudden chasm opening over his road, emerges from deep within him, spinning in front of his eyes, right between the two men.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou.”**

The familiar voice booms, the card stopping right in front of him, a green light coming out of it for a second, as Izuku finally notices a counter right below the art of the tarot card, now sitting with two filled white spaces out of ten.

**“Your bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring Thou closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana.”**

_“So, my… relationships can grow uh,”_ Izuku thinks with a frown, scratching his head a little as he expect time to get back to normal any second now that the card has said the usual piece, _“Still wondering what does “Creating Personas” even mean, do I, like, need to do the thing with the mask again or-”_

As the card finally sinks back within himself however, the voice returns talking again, apparently not having yet finished with their spiel.

**“With this Bond growing, thou have now gained the Power of One for All, the Souls of the Martyrs who Immolate Themselves in Order to Protect the World.”**

Izuku doesn’t know how to react, neither at the weird moniker his… new quirk seems to have now, nor at the fact the strange voice talking seemingly knew about it despite it being such a close guarded secret.

**“Thou have gained the ability of empowering the personas of the Fool Arcana with its Might.”**

As the card settles within him, as Time crawls back into his proper pace, Izuku can still hear the voice’s last words, as they suddenly resonate deep within his soul, and doesn’t know what to make of them.

Fortunately, he doesn’t have to think too hard about them.

“Well then Young Midoriya, I say we celebrate!” All Might says with a boisterous laugh, this time actually devolving into coughing blood, if momentarily, “What do you say, want to take the Aiya Mega Meat Bowl Challenge with me? We might lack the discipline, knowledge, understanding, expression and courage to conquer it, but I’m SURE we will valiantly die trying!”

Izuku’s smile shows back up at his mentor words, even as he shakes his head, “I’m sorry All Might, I promised my mom I’d be home for dinner tonight to celebrate finishing cleaning up the beach with her, I unfortunately can’t stay here with you.”

All Might instantly deflates at Izuku’s words, sullenly looking away like the world’s most underfed puppy, and a pang of guilt assaults Izuku deep within his heart.

“How about… how about you also come with me uh?” Izuku says with a resigned sigh, “Mom wanted to meet this mysterious new friend who I’ve been training with for a while anyway, I’m sure she’d love to get to know you better, and it might not be Aiya but my mom does make some mean Katsudon.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose…” All Might begins excusing himself, and had this been 10 months ago, before he had spent so much time with the man, Izuku would have probably started blushing and started a stammered apology or one hundred as he took his refusal at face value.

Now, however, Izuku simply smiles, a faint blush still showing up upon his freckled cheeks, the traitor, and simply goes, “Don’t worry, you’ll not be imposing or anything, Mom always cooks for an army anyway, I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Oh, well, if you say so…” A suddenly bashful All Might says with nervous chuckle, “Let’s… Let’s go meet my successor’s mother, the one who doesn’t know about the fact I’ve just given her son a potentially life ending Quirk. Yeah. Let’s… let’s do that I see nothing wrong with it really, and who am I to refuse free food, eh eh eh…”

“Great!” Izuku says with a cheery smile, completely missing All Might’s sudden dread as he jumps back up on his feet, “I’ll go warn her, you better be there or I’m dragging you there!”

All Might can’t help but smile a little at his charge, and at how… at ease he seemed to have gotten, at least with him, especially compared to the scared, nervous wreck from 10 months ago.

Then an explosion is heard from a couple streets away from the beach, instantly startling Izuku back into his terrorized bunny as he looks wildly around for potential threats, Persona already out and squaring up behind him, as All Might shifts back into his full power, still having enough fuel for at least one hour.

“WELL, IT SEEM OUR TIME HAS BEEN CUT SHORT, YOUNG MIDORIYA!” All Might Booms, instantly attracting the attention of the beach goers downside and getting some cheers at his sudden appearance, “I’LL TRY TO BE THERE FOR YOUR CELEBRATION WITH YOUR MOTHER AS YOU ASKED OF ME, BUT DUTY CALLS NOW AND I MUST GO!”

In a blink of a eye, All Might has already sped away from a startled Izuku, the wind pressure coming out of his departure easily knocking him and his persona down, Izuku falling down on his ass right as Quixote easily dropped down his horse in a heap of armour.

Izuku, the explosion bringing him down from his serotonin high from his victory, as the sound of explosions tended to do for him most often than not, was now back at being really nervous about, well, everything, sits back up with a huff, as he pointedly ignored the continued snickers from the bloody raven up the lamppost above him.

He got back on his feet, silently making his persona disappear back onto his card, as he started heading back away from the commotion away from him, not really wanting to deal with any of that right now, as he went to tell his mother about their impromptu new guest for tonight’s celebratory dinner.

* * *

Choral music assault Izuku’s ears, blasting loudly and unexpectedly during his slumber as his eyes snap open with a strangled scream.

He blinks, adjusting his sight to the faint, cerulean light of the Velvet Room, as memories start flooding back within him. The boy doesn’t even have the time to go into a full-blown panic attack over being kidnapped in his dreams _again_ that he’s already seated onto a plush sofa tinged of a faint shade of blue, Igor, on an equally plushy blue armchair, his hands clasped beneath his long nose, humming in thought, a faint vein popping over his forehead.

They are exactly where he left them, the table in front of him having the set of Major Arcanas back sprawled on top of it. The deck seems to be… still sporting some “glitches,” three Tower Arcanas face up on the table, but at least now other tarots were finally appearing on the table, a Fool (0) and a Chariot (VII) Arcana, for starters, as well as…

_“Is that… Is that a Joker from a French Poker Deck?”_

“Welcome to the Velvet Room, Kiddo!” A cheery voice interrupts Izuku in his musings, making him yelp and jump slightly as he realizes there is someone else in the room with them, and is _sitting right beside him on the sofa._

Almost to camouflage herself among the room’s colours, the woman is wearing a blue bodysuit, deep shades of cerulean and aquamarine blending easily with the ambient. Her cape, the only non-blue thing in her ensemble, is white, tied loosely around her neck and cascading behind the couch, her blue, skin-tight bodysuit starting from there and covering her whole body down to her equally blue boots, a white sash used as a seemingly makeshift belt over her hips, right below her defined and incredibly visible eight pack of a wall of muscle she has for an abdomen, her arms, bare and revealing some dangerously rippling muscles as she leisurely spreads her veritable chunks of hard flesh over the back of the couch, one of them already behind Izuku’s head, and Izuku’s mind riles over for a second as he instantly fixates on that detail for a second too long, not even registering her chuckle, bright yellow eyes looking at him with an impish smile, her dark hair tied behind her in a loose knot, and a blue beret completing the ensemble on top of her head.

Izuku gulps, once, before attempting to scramble away from the new arrival, his mouth opening in a silent shout, only for the woman to simply chuckle again at his antics.

“Awww, do not be alarmed and all that shit, we’re all friends here Kiddo. I’m…” The woman’s eyes go blank for a second, long enough for Izuku to notice, but not long enough for him not to rationalize it as the light playing tricks on his mind, “I’m Anna, yeah! Attendant of this Velvet Room, Keeper of the Books and Certified Badass, and Long Nose Silver there… Yeah, he hired me, so to speak, to help you out in all this… Persona Business he mentioned or something.”

She attempts to reassure him with a smirk, even despite her own apartment unfamiliarity with the subject, Izuku’s panic levels managing to lower a fraction of nothing in the process.

Her sly smirk turns mischievous as she slowly leans toward him, “So, as I said, Welcome to the Velvet Room Izuku-Chan. I’d say I’ll be in your care, but I think we both know which one of us is going to care for the other now, right?”

Both her hands come to Izuku’s face, squishing his cheeks slightly as she rises his face a little as she inspects his soft, freckled face with a pleased hum, another soft giggle escaping her as she notices Izuku’s cheek growing redder by the second under her teasing.

Especially given how his dumb, hormone-ridden and traitorous teenage brain was currently trying really hard to force his eyes, respectfully strong-armed by his iron will into staring straight in front of him toward the woman’s yellow’s eyes, to look downward.

Suddenly feeling very hot and very sweaty, Izuku manages to remove his face from the stranger’s hand, averting his gaze really hard to make himself as small as possible under the woman’s gaze, knees knocking shut as he grips at them with his hands, eyes going instantly to the ground as he tries to say anything to excuse himself, voice still lacking.

This only earns him a… not exactly mocking laughter off the random woman, loud and so life filled as it was, but something very close to one, only causing Izuku to grow redder and sweatier.

Igor, seemingly out of his impromptu nervous breakdown over his glitched up tarot deck, gives one small cough, instantly catching the attention of both Izuku and Anna, who by her part sheepishly starts scratching the back of her neck with another, much more subdued laugh.

“Sorry boss,” She says, her teasing smile growing fainter but still there, “Anyway, as I said, welcome to the Velvet Room Kiddo. As Boss Man here said, I shall help you out in the years to come keeping track of the Links and the Persona you’ll be able to collect over your journey.”

This catches Izuku’s attention, as a large, leather bound book, so different yet so eerily similar to one of his own notebooks, appears in the woman’s lap, opening in the middle as Quixote’s card appears right above it, spinning slowly downward into the book, blank pages suddenly filled with words and images regarding both the card and, to the side, the same Fool Arcana card Igor was having in front of him.

“Neat uh?” She points out with a smirk, noticing Izuku’s wide, almost sparkling eyes as he stares amazed at the spectacle, “I have absolutely no idea how I’m doing this BTW, so that probably makes two of us. Anyway, as you can see, you have now gained a new bond. According to the Boss Man, those bonds will be the key to strengthen this weird quirk of yours. Nurture them, and your control and mastery over it will grow, leave them to rot, break them or betray them, and your powers, much like those bonds, will betray you and leave you. Again, no idea why that’s the-”

“Even in the sea of one’s soul, no one is truly an Island,” Igor interjects with a pleased smirk, getting back both Izuku and the Attendant attention, “In order for a human’s psyche to mature, in order for someone to truly excel and become the best version of themselves, they’ll need the aid and the support of those around them, as they give them themselves their own aid and support. Alone, you would never accomplish any of your destinies, oh esteemed guest, and your potential will be squandered for good. You best be remembering that.”

Izuku gulps, Igor’s words swirling in his mind as he frowns.

Bonds with other people. Izuku… never really bonded with anyone outside of his mom truly, maybe with Kacchan, but even that was probably crashed and burned by now. Years of bullying and solitude made it hard for him to make… any sort of friends, especially when there was Bakugou ready to taint and poison those friendships too by starting to bully them in turn.

If UA was going to be anything like his old schools over the years, especially if Bakugou also managed to get there, even with his two new Quirk to show off, Izuku knew it was not going to be easy making friends there.

“Yeah, what the Nose said,” Anna interjects with a cheeky grin, “So, make friends, get a girlfriend or two, seduce some hot MILF teacher according to the Boss Man here that’s a tradition at this point… or maybe get a boyfriend while you’re at it if you’re into that, maybe get both, live a little kid this is the time of your life, do what you want I don’t care as long as you are having fun really, the more you have fun with other people, the more your bond grows and strengthen, the more you will become better and stronger.”

Izuku’s blushes at Anna’s suggestions, her eyebrows wiggling slightly, and he can swear he can hear Igor sigh imperceptibly at her antics.

“Yes… Do all that.” Igor concedes with an imperceptibly strained smile, “But remember… Expanding and nurturing your social sphere that will not be the only trial you will face in your coming years to empower you. You shall soon face the first real trials of your journey. You’ll better be… prepared to deal with it at the best of your power, even when going at your own pace, for it will have… many, unforeseen consequences endangering you and those around you, their shadows, the masks they wear looming over all of your futures as we speak.”

Worry appears on Izuku’s face, fleeting like morning dew as a sudden drowsiness starts seeping within his mind.

“When we’ll meet again, it will be in the real world, months away from today,” Igor concludes with a smile, as Anna pushes onto Izuku’s palms a violet coloured key, “this key will guide you onto one of the entrances into this room, were we will truly begin your… enrichment, once you’ll start building up Personas.”

Izuku doesn’t truly register Igor’s words until it’s too late, eyelids starting to grow heavy even as his brain finally catches up to him and realizes the possible implications of what “building up Personas” might mean.

The last thing he hears, are his… Attendant excited words, as reality starts melting away from him, catapulting him back into his own sleep.

“Good luck tomorrow on your test kiddo,” the words are but a whisper sneaking within his ears, gently lulling him back to sleep.

“Something tells me you’ll gona need it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a couple notes now that we've finished the "set up" and we are about to enter the story proper.
> 
> 1) This is a Persona BNHA mash up. As in, this will be BNHA, but treated as a Persona Narrative, with Izuku as a Wildcard with a velvet room, god slaying, MILF Teachers and the other, usual tropes proper of a Persona Story. This means there will not be much interaction from old characters from other series in the persona franchise, since they all happened in, like, the 21th century and BNHA is happening in the 23rd-24th or something. This isn't to say some surprise cameos might still not happen of course, just expect them with the same frequency a normal persona game does cameos and easter eggs to his previous games.
> 
> 2) Izuku gets a talking animal companion because animal companions are kind of a staple in Persona Games, and also because they seem to be a staple within BNHA fics too, given the times I've seen Izuku get a cat, dog or sentient trash ferret in many of the fics in here.
> 
> 3) Midoriya's Persona is Don Quixote, a OC persona since Personal Personas are, like, personal to the persona and shit. Just like Persona 5 had persona inspired to literary thieves, persona 4 had personas from the Japanese Pantheon, and Persona 3 had them from the Greek One, personas here will be taken first from Literary heroes (or "heroes" in the case of Don Quixote") and later from SPOILER once ranked up to 10 on the social link.
> 
> 4) Current Social Link Table of Content, based on currently unlocked social links:
> 
> (0) Fool: All Migh: Rank II
> 
> (0) Jester: Remus the Talking Raven: Rank I
> 
> 5) Next Up, the UA entrance exam, and the beginning of the story proper, as Izuku meets new people, thanks a girl for slapping him, and finally discovers how to add more Personas to his arsenal.
> 
> A release schedule has not been set up as of yet.
> 
> Also if anyone, like... is up or beta reading I'd be happy to have them.


	3. Story Event: The Entrance Exam

The first step Izuku takes in his quest to become a Hero, also happens to potentially be his last.

A far too strong wind current manages to somehow trip Izuku up, the young man silently cursing his persona’s natural weakness to wind transferring over onto him right as he was so, so close at achieving his dream of entering UA.

Izuku, now on a one way trip toward the hard and paved ground beneath him, can already see himself split his head open against the gravel, ignored by the other examinees on their way toward their bright futures as pro heroes, as he is left there, alone and forgotten, as blood loss finally puts him out of his misery.

Izuku doesn’t feel as bad as he had always assumed he would have felt in a scenario like this, a strange calm filling him to the brim as he gracefully accepts the by now inevitable end his short and not so fulfilling life.

_“Guess I’ll die.”_

Fortunately, is Izuku’s momentum the one who dies instead, gravity failing him momentarily as Izuku starts to gently float off the ground, Izuku instantly freaking out at the inexplicable situation he just found himself in.

“Sorry!” A voice beside Izuku peppily says, “I saw you falling and I simply had to use my Quirk on you, wouldn’t want you to fall the very same day of the entrance exam that would be bad luck!”

Izuku turns as he feels surprisingly calloused hands grabbing at him and pulling him back onto his feet from his floating position, the planet’s gravitational pull soon returning as Izuku in turn turns toward his saviour, stammered apology instantly dying in his mouth the second he realizes he’s just been saved by a girl.

Izuku’s traitorous, hormone filled teenage brain fails him momentarily as he stares, dumbfounded, at the nice brunette now in front of him, her bob cut framing her gentle, slightly rounded face like a halo, a permanent round blush on her cheeks as she gives him a polite smile.

“Glad to see you are all right” She says with another polite smile before cheerily waving at him as she leaves, Izuku still staring at her, his jaw hanging wide “Well, good luck on the exam, see you there!”

“I…” Izuku manages to stammer out after a long pause, still staring dumbly at the nice girl’s retreating back, “I- m-mean…”

His mouth snaps shut as he sees the girl enter the large building in front of him, new purpose fills the young man’s heart, a wide smile splitting his face as realization finally strikes him right in the gut with an oversized mallet.

 _“I finally talked to a girl!”_ He thinks, ecstatic, barely registering the fact he did not, in fact, talk to her at all.

The stares coming from the crowd of other examinees all around him suddenly make Izuku grow self-conscious, getting him out of his reprieve on the spot, trying to cover the violent blush overtaking his cheeks with his hands as he hastily makes his way toward the main building.

Stress and nerves return to him, now worse than ever, as he finally enters the room where the written part of the UA test took place, his trembling hands now gripping onto the edges of the wooden desk, steeling himself for the task to come as something… weirdly unpleasant twist deep within his gut.

He looks around the room, almost falling off his chair as he notices _Kacchan_ of all people sitting right beside him, thankfully enough too self-absorbed to even notice anyone beside himself in the room, as Izuku’s feeling of dread worsens.

 _“Well, here goes nothing then,”_ Izuku thinks as he steels himself the best he can, barely noticing the hanging aura of doom hovering over his fellow examinees, and he gives a small sigh of relief as he notices that, at least, he is not the only one being nervous that day.

* * *

The written portion of the exam was never the issue.

Izuku had always been a smart boy, especially when his dream was on the line, so it came with only a small surprise to him when answer upon answer started flowing freely off his pen.

Luck had also played a surprisingly large part in this. After all, by a weird twist of fate, it seemed a good chunk of questions in the Tests also happened to be about stuff he had already been asked about during the previous 10 months of training he had to go through, either by his mother, All Might, Remus, or even his old high school teachers, back when he participated to some of the few mandatory exams he had to take in person even while home-schooled, fortunately passing them without much issue.

Izuku was so sure about his answers in the written exam in fact, that he had even managed to finish the test earlier than the given end time, leaving him around half an hour more minutes to review and check for eventual mistakes in it, jittering restlessly as he tried not to second guess himself, occupying his restless hands with some spare paper he still had at hand, as he started producing some paper cranes.

(Remus had stressed out multiple times about the importance of paper crane making while in idle situations after all. Said it built a Persona User’s diligence or something, Izuku didn’t really get any of that, he just knew that the methodical, repetitive set of movements he needed to do in order to produce each new crane did, at least, ease his nerves a little when it came to stressful situations).

So, no, the written portion of the exam was not an issue for Izuku.

The practical part, on the other hand…

Izuku is so jittery and freaked out during the explanation of the exam, no card at hand to prepare any cranes with, that he doesn’t even nerd out as much as he would have had in a normal scenario at Present Mic’s appearance. He barely realizes that he’s disturbing the other examinees with his nervous muttering, before one of them, a tall young man with sharp spectacles and blue hair, calls him out for it in front of everyone with a stern and loud voice, making Izuku subconsciously flinch and shrink away from the glares all around him.

He needs to calm down and focus on the exam, and he needs to do so fast.

It’s not like he doesn’t trust in himself or his Quirk(s) that is. Despite his persona was seemingly still at Level 4, and despite All Might’s sudden stress after meeting Izuku’s kind and gentle mother, or his warning over the fact Izuku still didn’t give himself enough to get accustomed to the full might of One for All, right after their celebratory dinner at Izuku’s house, Izuku is fairly sure he can use a combination of both to deal with the villain bots at the best of his abilities at least.

And yet, even knowing that, Izuku is still a barely contained mess of nerves, even as he steels himself for the incoming test, even as he and the others are lead toward their own faux city, each separated in different groups as they are ready to begin the test, a nervousness, a dread he can almost feel oozing not just from himself, but from all the other examinees around him spreading like wildfire in the air.

Izuku gulps slowly as the reality of the situation finally sinks in.

UA was THE top hero academy in the country. Joining it would have meant an easy, maybe if a little bump-filled ride toward a future career in heroics. Sponsors and Internships were offered during the years within it, the sports festival allowing them to show off their skills on national television, all of this easily giving the students a in within the hero world that couldn’t be obtained under any other hero university. It was the difference between obtaining the references necessary in order to become a top ranked hero by the time you were still in your prime, or getting swamped and traded from an agency to another for decades, working as an underpaid intern or sidekick for a far more successful hero, never managing to get your big break in the industry, and ending up becoming some 50 something washed up has-been with a drinking problem use to cope with far too many work related injuries, yet another cog in the ever grinding machine of heroism, wondering when did it all go wrong.

Except you would know when did your life exactly start to go wrong.

And that was, again, when you failed the UA entrance exam and was forced to join another, less connected academy, starting the domino effect leading to your career’s demise.

Dead before it could even start.

A real, horrible possibility hanging over everyone’s collective heads like the world’s most boring, most depressing Damocles’ sword.

Izuku knows this, wide eyed naïve hero fan that he is, and he is pretty sure everyone else in this room knows this too, his jitters and dread only worsening over the by now almost tangible bloodlust coming in droves from some of his fellow examinees, from their desire to overcome everyone else in the room and be one of the 40 chosen to enter UA’s exclusive heroics course.

No matter the cost.

* * *

In the sea of collective consciousness, something deep within the abyss below _stirs_ , causing a ripple within the surface of the conscious to form, circular, concentric, singular.

If you were to hear closely, you could almost hear the droplets trickling down from somewhere, anywhere, nowhere, seeping through the cracks between reality and mind, and slowly infiltrating…

_Somewhere._

_Somehow._

* * *

After an unexpected false start, the practical part of the entrance exam has finally begun.

Izuku manages to instantly separate himself from the main group of examinees, not really due to any sort of strategy on his part as much as for the fact he was just left in the dust by the lot of them due to his poor reaction timing.

Still, he has no time to complain now. He must stack up as many points as he can, each robot model sporting one different score one could gain from destroying them, but he needs to do so all in the time limit of the exam, which is not going to happen any time soon if everyone is going to destroy all the villain bots scattered around the devasted faux city, before he even has a chance of proving his worth.

He needs to catch up to the main group and fast.

Fortunately for him, he should have a small advantage over his fellow examines in terms of speed right now.

After all, Izuku doesn’t think anyone else had had the bright idea to bring a Horse with them to the entrance exam.

“P-Persona!” He yells, card appearing in his hand in a flash of blue flame before disappearing as fast as it came, Quixote already onto full gallop beside him, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and dropping him in his lap, the overburdened horse, wobbling a little from the sudden weight gain, valiantly clopping along, soon going into a mad gallop toward the running contestants in front of them, quickly recovering Izuku’s lost ground.

Izuku adjusts himself onto the horse, grabbing onto its reins right as a robot, a 1-Pointer, drops off a nearby building straight into Izuku’s path.

Izuku’s eyes widen right as panic and dread suddenly seep into his mind at the sight of the metal titan standing between him and the rest of the group, the young man freezing up on Quixote’s horse, fright overtaking him as he desperately tries to stop their mad gallop by pulling in the reins in his hands.

Unfortunately for him, or Fortunately depending on who you asked, Izuku’s Persona seems to have other ideas.

The usually always on the verge of keeling over and dying due to overfatigue horse doesn’t stop, actually managing to pick up even more speed as a fervour enters her skeletal frame like Izuku’s had never seen before in the poor beast, green flames erupting from its eyes right as Quixote’s form glows in a faint, green aura, the Inexistent Knight readying his wooden lance, the momentum of their dash enough to impale the Robot as if he was melted butter, passing it part to part before tossing it to the side with a strength Izuku had never seen before from the Knight, the robot crashing against a nearby wall and deactivating with a mechanical whimper, right as Izuku’s mind boots back up, faintly registering the gained 1 point.

Izuku’s confidence gets a sudden, much needed boost at the sight, his nerves settling, hopefully for good as a spark of something ignites within him.

_“I can… I can do this!”_

As if the universe had heard him, the second he manages to catch up with the main group of examinees after his mad gallop from the downed 1-Pointer, he finds them already beating the scrap out of most of the poor robots already in the arena, each competing over which kill actually belonged to whom, all of them already having racked up way and way more points than Izuku’s measly 1.

Izuku’s previous cheer plummets to the ground, but even then he doesn’t give up yet, his resolve by now tried and tested after the first robot’s destruction, as he and Quixote finally join the fray, startling a nearby examinee as they gallop right beside him, the poor girl not really expecting the sudden arrival of a whole ass horse dropping right at her side.

“Rebellion!” Izuku casts, getting bonked, gently, right in the head by Quixote’s lance as the ability washes over him, blinding a bunch of other examinees in the process and attracting the attention of a couple of nearby 2-Pointers, now wiggling their way toward him. Luck now on his side, he Bashes toward one of them, glowing lance bonking the two headed robot straight against one of its heads, crashing it against the other, and miraculously making him flip over to the side, allowing Izuku to direct the horse to jump over it, toward the second 2-Pointer before it can react, Skewering it with Quixote’s lance.

In the chaos all around him, Izuku can faintly hear a nearby 3-Pointer shooting off rockets off the cannons mounted on its back, right before the rude boy who had called out Izuku for muttering during the presentation crashes straight into him with superhuman speed, the rockets flying wildly around due to their now skewed aim, and Izuku has barely the time to see a couple of them aiming right toward a nearby examinee, who on their part are now far too preoccupied with dealing with their own 1-Pointer to notice their incoming demise.

Izuku and his persona’s mind seem to come to the same conclusion at the sight, hastily redirecting their gallop the unaware boy’s way, right in the path of the stray rockets, bracing themselves for the coming impact.

The rockets’ explosions hurt more than Izuku expected, especially given his own natural resistance to physical attacks. Thankfully, even despite the direct hit or his own lack of resistance to the element, he seems to handle the impact well enough, especially thanks to his and Quixote’s high endurance, as well as the generally weakened charges the Villain Bos seems to be shooting for the sake of the days’ exam, especially compared to some of Kacchan’s very own explosions, barely leaving some stray scorch marks upon Izuku’s gym tracksuit.

“I guess explosions must count as fire damage, would have loooved to know this earlier,” Izuku grumbles beneath his breath with a grunt, climbing over Quixote so to better see the now startled examinee behind them, a purple haired young man with deep bags beneath his eyes, looking right back at him with an unimpressed glare, his own 1-Pointer now dead on the ground, a metal pipe in his hand as if he had to beat the scrap out of it with it in order to destroy it.

“I didn’t need your help,” He says in an almost bored monotone, right as he lean his head to his side, looking at something straight past Izuku’s left “Also you should worry about yourself first before going out of your way on helping others.”

Izuku frowns at the young man’s words, but before he can even open his mouth to reply, another 2-Pointer comes rushing down toward him, taking both him and his persona completely unaware, unbalancing the two due to the unexpected impact and toppling their makeshift human tower, Izuku falling hard on the ground as a result.

“Ow,” Izuku mutters under his breath, right before realizing that the 2-Pointer’s twin heads are now staring straight at him, advancing menacingly toward his prone form. As he attempts to crawl away from the faux villain, the 2-Pointer readies one claw to strike Izuku’s down in his vulnerable position.

Before the two headed robot can however come crashing down on him, Izuku is picked up and thrown bodily to the side by someone, the 2-Pointer striking against the now empty ground, claw crashing against the concrete and getting struck in it, giving Quixote the perfect opportunity to tackle the faux villain from behind with all of his metallic might, grappling it to the ground.

Izuku looks up, the purple headed examinee staring down at him with another unimpressed glare, a constant fixture on the young man’s face in the relatively short time he has met him.

“As I said, watch out for yourself first. This is a competition, not a stroll in the park, you do understand that, right?”

“T-thanks,” Izuku can only stammer out, completely missing the smirk from the other teen as he turns and head toward the still struggling 2-Pointer, currently being wrestled into the ground by Quixote, before he picks back Izuku’s persona’s lance and bashes the 2-pointers heads with it with two, quick strikes, “Well, I… I guess we’re even now uh? Good luck for the rest of the exam, I’m s-sure you’re gona ace it!”

The young man turns toward Izuku with a raised eyebrow, probably expecting some sort of complain from his fellow examinee over him bagging the 2-Pointer instead, a flash of… something materializing behind his eyes for one small, infinite second, only for the young man’s shoulder to drop, a sigh escaping his mouth as tension leaves his body, right drops Quixote’s weapon at Izuku’s side and starts leaving.

“Ugh, you are way too defenceless for your own good,” He says with an annoyed drawl, “Fine, whatever, you owe me one now then, try not to die in here till you can pay me back.”

And then he’s gone, off toward yet another bot, Izuku briefly wondering about what the boy’s quirk must have been right before he is bonked once again in the head by Quixote, refocusing him back to the task at hand.

Specifically, over the fact this little stunt has just gained him no points of his own, and he is now still sitting on a meagre 5 points over everyone’s else scores.

Speaking of which…

“Yes, with these I should be at 24 points now!” Izuku hears from somewhere in the fray, his eyes instantly drawn toward the source of the sound as he spots the nice girl from before, the one who saved him from falling, who was now sitting at almost 5 times his own points, Izuku not knowing if feeling impressed, emasculated, or terrified as she cheerily tags more and more Villain Bots and has them crash back onto the ground, some even pummelling against other villain bots in the process.

He needs to step up, as a second 3-Pointer finally skitter its way toward him, ready to launch more rockets at the examinees, only for Quixote, now back on his horse, to charge at it with another Skewer, Izuku foregoing riding his persona at the moment in case they got toppled over again.

A 1-Pointer unfortunately has the bright idea to ambush the boy and start shooting at him, right as he rationalizes his idea of foregoing the protected position on top of Quixote’s horse over the now more vulnerable sitting duck he has now turned himself into. Fortunately for the boy, however, the robot’s bullets barely manage to make a dent on his by now naturally resistant to physical attacks body, only startling Izuku slightly due to the sudden stinging sensation he’s feeling on his back.

Eyes widening, the ambush happening right as Quixote charges over different 1-Pointer and pummels it to the ground with his lance several yards away, Izuku emits a startled cry before grabbing the debris all around the devastated city, throwing it against his own 1-Pointer, trying to keep him away from him, making a not really considerable dent against its metal coating around it, barely holding it back as it keeps ineffectively shooting at him, a never ending struggle of man vs machine, as pointless and as eternal as a snake swallowing his own tail.

Then, suddenly, a rock the size of a meteor sails past Izuku’s head and crashes against the 1-Pointer, destroying it for good under Izuku’s startled gaze.

“29 Points!” the nice girl Izuku TOTALLY had a conversation with earlier cheers from behind him, catching up to him with a pleased smile “AND, I managed to save you again, that’s two times you owe me one, better not make it a third!”

Izuku can’t help but stammer a nervous chuckle at the girl radiant smile, not even having the time to talk to her before she waves back at him and leaves, Izuku noticing the almost imperceptible wobble she seems to display with each of her steps, as if she was about to lose her balance or something.

“Perhaps a side effect of her quirk?” Izuku can’t help but mutter, once again losing the focus on the exam, only for Quixote to forcefully remind him where the hell he is now as steps in between him and a 2-Pointer, lifting it by the head before it can lunge at Izuku and throwing it away against a nearby 3-Pointer right as it was about to shoot, the rockets exploding within his chambers and destroying the two bots.

“Yes, right, entrance exam, deadly situation, not getting distracted now, got it!” Izuku barks as he shakes his head, trying to get back into focus, “I’ll have all the time in the world to ask her about her quirk when we’re both classmates at UA.”

A faint blush shows up on Izuku’s cheek at his bold statement, defiantly ignoring it as he casts Rebellion back on himself, His ability having ran out of time by then, before directing his Persona back against another 1-Pointer, Bashing it with his lance, the constant stream of commands only winding Izuku a little after months of endurance training.

“I still have plenty of time for catching up with everyone,” Izuku mutters under his breath with a determined smile, right as another 1-Pointer falls under Quixote’s lance, “And there seem to be enough robots for everyone still, even despite my earlier fear of running out of them, if nothing goes wrong, I’m sure I’ll be able to pass this test with no issue!”

* * *

On a darkened room, somewhere within the inner campus, the UA faculty is evaluating the examinees, analysing and commenting on their feats and their Quirks as they look upon their dark, green tinted screens.

One of them, the only woman in the room, hums pensively, one hand going beneath her chin and stroking as she leans in, trying to get a better look at the screens in front of her.

“Is it just me, or are there way more Robots out there this time?” She wonders out loud, a frown marring her features, “Oi, Power Loader, are you sure the little brats can… _handle_ so many partners all at once?”

“Eh, you’d be surprised Midnight,” Another professor says with a deep laugh, “have you seen this year’s batch? Look at the bloodlust in their eyes, some of them are mauling those robots as if they’d personally just insulted their mother to their face.”

“What is your lot talking about?” Another professor, a shirtless man with his head encased in yellow metal clamp, answers in a confused tone at Midnight’s previous comment, “The number of villain bots is the same as always, perfectly regulated to better simulate the scarcity of criminals compared to the overabundance of prospective heroes to catch them in the real world. They are a fixed number, they take a specific amount of damage, and then they deactivate for the rest of the exam.”

“See, it’s all displayed here on the charts,” He concludes, a white chart appearing on the main screen in the room, slightly to the left so not to cover too many other screens, monitoring closely the state and number of Villain Bots in each faux city.

“Are you sure about that, Pardner?” Another professor says from his own booth, humming in thought as he too stares down at his own screens, now paying more attention to the number of robots in it, “Because I don’t know what sweet lies are your charts whispering to you, but some of those tinmen seem not to have yee’ded their last haw yet.”

“What? Let me see…” Power Loader hums, a frown forming beneath his helmet, moving toward his colleague’s booth and staring intently at his screens.

In there, the screen showing the various potential examinees doing their best to beat the scrap out of Power Loader’s creations, he can clearly see his state-of-the-art villain bots getting powered down after reaching a certain amount of “calculated damage” inflicted on them, only for them to… glitch out the second the prospective hero student who had downed it had turned their back to them, the Bots frizzling as if they’ve been struck by lightning, and reactivate themselves soon after, now more erratic, more… unhinged than before, wiggling slightly around the battlefield, visibly confused, only to be brought down again by another prospective hero student rounding the corner, damaging the bot a bit more, beginning the cycle anew.

“Well, that’s not right,” Power Loader hums, seemingly in deep thought, “The bots seem to be glitching out slightly, it might be nothing, it might be everything, we might need to stop the test now before something unexpected might happen-”

“Nonsense Power Loader,” the mouse, no, the dog, no, the bear, no, the Principal of UA said, squeaky voice reverberating within the dark room, “Those are prospective heroes in there, they should always be ready for something unexpected happening, this will just be yet another way we’ll be able to test their mettle, to see if they really are worthy of becoming a hero.”

“But, sir, with all due respect” The lone female teacher shoots back from her booth, “Wouldn’t this inflate the scores of all of our students? Those Bots are coming back into the fright more and more damaged, soon enough they’ll simply be sitting duck for the students to-”

“We’ll just have to base our grading more on rescue points than on villain points then,” The principal interrupts her with a dismissive squeak, “Or maybe just reduce the villain score by a flat amount, we’ll think about this late either way the test will continue and that’s final!”

The principal’s squeaks take on the finality of a sealed coffin, demanding silence from anyone else currently in the room with him as they get back at watching the green screen and grading the various students.

“A couple glitches will surely be of no concern for our prospective hero students.”

* * *

“22 Points with this one!” Izuku exclaims as Quixote brings down yet another 2-Pointer, praising his persona by the side-lines as he does all the work for him, becoming the knight’s new, personal cheerleader in the process.

It has been going well as of late, no more near-death experiences, no more having to save unaware people, just him, his persona, and villain bots getting the scrap beaten out of them.

Speaking of which, here’s another 1-Pointer coming his way, brandishing its machine guns, ready to shoot.

Izuku turns, Quixote moving in kind, placing himself between Izuku and the Bot, who starts shooting… empty air at a now confused Izuku and at his Persona.

The guns’ chargers seem empty, the small detail giving Izuku enough pause as he looks at the bot in front of him, already beaten and bended, one arm missing, three different holes in his chest, head missing, barely hang together by spit and faith, and yet still working, somehow…

But not standing, since the second it realized it had no means to defend itself anymore, the bot had seemingly dropped down on the ground, Izuku wasn’t sure if he did so to attempt an impression of playing death or, worse yet, if begging for mercy from the young boy, and he swears the villain bot is… whimpering, soft, metallic cries coming out of it as it trembles, ever so slightly, as Quixote readies his lance to strike it down.

Izuku hesitates, holding Quixote back with a thought, and after a small pause the Bot, realizing it’s not to be hurt again, raises himself off his working arm from the ground, if only slightly, and Izuku can see… something deep within it, right from one of its gaping holes, a weird black void, swirling, changing, Izuku’s attention suddenly going to the… weird mask, slithering across the surface of the bot till it’s aimed directly at him, its empty stare looking deep within Izuku’s soul.

“Wait, something’s not right…”

The rude boy who called Izuku out during the exam’s introduction doesn’t even give him the time to think as he crashes at sonic speed against the Bot and makes him crash against a wall, a metallic, heart wrenching wail coming out of it as it finally breaks for good and, hopefully, ends its misery as it shatters into pieces.

“In a fight you should always be aware of your surrounding and always strike when the opportunity presents itself!” The boy lectures Izuku with some wild arm chops, as if this was the time to do so, “Standing there and doing nothing will not-”

Another wail, this time far less metallic, erupts from the broken, destroyed robot, catching both Izuku and the rude boy’s attention, as… _something_ , hatches out from within the metal cocoon, a small, round, black… goop, wearing the expressionless mask from before, sliding down on the ground and wiggling in place.

“What’s that?” The rude boy asks, sounding as confused as Izuku feels, “That was not on the brochure for the exam NOR in the preparatory meeting!”

A 3-pointer limps in from somewhere, missing half of its legs as he is chased down by 4 different examinees, who quickly tackle the mechanical villain and tear it apart with their bare hands, easily foregoing their quirks, the 3-Pointer seemingly wailing in pain at the assault, a bigger black goo than the one from the 1-Pointer coming out of it with a gurgling whimper, sporting a second, bigger mask, hurriedly slithering away from the arguing teens surrounding the pulverized robot.

“The points are mine; I destroyed the villain first!” One of the examinees, a blonde girl with a chainsaw for a hand, complain loudly, yellow eyes shining maliciously, a glare equally reflected among her three “companions” eyes.

“Nonsense, I brought it down first, because I am better than you, nah, scratch that, I am better than EVERYONE!” Another of them, a red-haired dude, barks at her, flames erupting out of his mouth with each word as his golden eyes shine brightly with each of his words, “Or maybe I’ll have to show you, yeah, I’ll have to show you all!”

“You’ll show nothing stink breath!” The blonde chainsaw wielding girl yells, reading her weapon, “Maybe the professors will realize how useless and weak you are when I’ve defeated you and taken all your points with me!”

“Oh yeah, try me you witch!”

The two examinees jump at each other, organic chainsaw lunging toward fire breath dude, only to miss his abdomen by a wild margin, the flames erupting off his maw scorching her side, a cry of pain escaping her lips before she grits her teeth, attempting another slash at her opponent right as another fellow examinee looks at them in barely contained glee.

“Yes, blood, blood, Fight to the death for the glory of blood,” A small, yellow eyed girl with orange coloured pigtails and an orange cheers on the carnage, head suddenly turning into a giant mantis’ head as she starts jumping up and down from her position, “The only reason why I wanted to become a hero was to legally be able to use my Quirk on people, and now I can finally see a fight to the death, yes!”

“Eh, do what you want, I never even wanted to be a hero anyway, my parents pressured me into it, I actually wanted to be a Juggalo.” The fourth examinee, A literal clown, says as he lays on the ground, yellow eyes slowly closing, “Just wake me up when this is all over, I don’t care.”

Izuku and the rude boy look on in absolute disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of them, the rude boy’s shock fading before Izuku’s as he instantly charges in between the two examinees, holding each back with a hand.

“This conduct is unbecoming of a future hero student!” The Boy says, suddenly going into full lecture mode, barely managing to keep the two examinees away from the other “Now, calm back down this instant and let us return to-”

“Stop getting in the way of the carnage you killjoy!” mantis head little girl screams as she jumps on the rude boys’ back and bites down on his shoulder, Izuku’s eyes growing in alarm as he hears him cry in pain.

Izuku hurriedly runs over to the rude boy and grabs the examinees currently grappling at his back, throwing her on the ground with a oof as the rude boy goes down on one knee, giving the opening fire breath needed to properly strike blonde chainsaw girl with his Quirk, the sick smell of burned flesh pervading the hair as her chainsaw arm is enveloped by fire, the girl going down with a cry right as the bite mark on the rude boy’s shoulder started glowing a faint green, poison spreading within his veins.

“Fucking buzzkill, getting to this bitch defence like she deserves it, he asked for it, they both asked for it” Flame Breath growls, eyes wide and manic as he stares down at Izuku, only for becoming instantly uninterested as he spots a limping 2-Pointer trying to discretely move away from the place, instantly charging toward it with a feral growl, the 2-Pointer trying its best to run away as soon as it realizes it has been spotted.

“This is bad, this is very bad,” Izuku says, eying both the bitten down man and the now slightly scorched blonde girl in absolute shock, “Crap crap crap, what do I do now, what do I do-”

* * *

“Ok, no, this is definitely not normal,” Midnight says with a frown, “Students have started attacking each other Nedzu, even despite knowing they were going to be disqualified for doing so, something is going terribly wrong here, we must stop this madness this-”

“Nonsense.” The small rodent dismissively squeaks out, “This will greatly prepare them for future crises within the hero community. Everyone knows the ally of today might become the deranged villain of tomorrow, especially when it comes to ranking up in the hero charts, by helping them learn this harsh truth this early this harsh truth we are simply doing our job as educators of the heroes of tomorrow.”

“Nedzu goddangit, some of these kids don’t have a tomorrow, heck some of those kids are about to see their last high noon today!” Another professor yells as another screen, featuring Izuku fretting over a poisoned tall boy and the scorched blonde chainsaw girl, “If you are not ending this exam right now I’ll swear to everything that is holy I’ll go down there myself and end it be the last thing I do.”

“Override security locks within examination room,” Nedzu casually squeaks, the locks locking the startled professors within the darkened room, “I assure you Snipe, everything is perfectly under control, now, keep quiet, and get back to work, I don’t pay you for these kind of theatrics.”

Before Snipe can snap back at the rat, someone else’s voice join in the conversation.

“If we don’t do something we’re gona get some casualties on our hands sir, and our student do seem affected by some sort of Quirk at the moment, maybe you should consider postponing this to find out what’s going on” The new voice says, trying to be diplomatic “I can send some of my clones in there to contain the damages and remove the more… evidently affected examinees. We can’t possibly afford that happening, especially after last year media fiasco with Aizawa’s class, and even then, what will you think it will happen if the health and safety department finds out about this?”

The figure, as well as everyone else in the room, cringe instantly the second the words come out of their mouth, almost unthinkingly, right as deranged laughter started erupting off the small rodent’s body, demanding silence from everyone in the room.

“Health and Safety?” Another squeak, louder, more commanding, erupts off him, making everyone in the room flinch at the almost… challenging tone it has taken, “I’ll show you Health and Safety! COMPUTER, BEGIN THE 0-POINTER ACTIVATION SEQUENCE!”

* * *

Izuku, still in full-blown panic mode, can barely feel as something viscid curls around his leg with a squelchy coo, his attention caught as he sees the black goo who had came out of the 1-Pointer there, almost… purring, as if it recognized him from before, as if recognizing his hesitance in striking it down. Izuku’s panicking brain skids to a halt as the black blob starts shining a bright green light, before seeping back into the ground.

Where once stood a black blob of gloop, now only a mask remains, right as said mark instantly started glowing brightly, disappearing into particles of light as it leaved behind one, incredibly different and yet impossibly familiar card, Izuku’s eyes going wide as he picked it up, almost reverently, momentarily forgetting about everything going around him.

The new… the New Persona’s card seemed completely different from Quixote’s card.

For one thing, this one was red against Quixote’s simple blue, sporting a bold Six in roman numeral where Quixote’s 0 was, and revealing a small, winged girl with short, brown hair, dragonfly wings keeping growing off her back, a blue suit covering her body, revealing her naked tights and arms, however also soon covered by long blue gloves and boots, her hands going to her cheeks as she smiled happily in the card art.

The card’s name seemed to be Pixie, and was sporting way more resistances and weaknesses than Quixote’s own card, with elements such as “Nuclear” or “Gun” appearing under the card art. The persona seemed resistant to only Electricity as well as “Bless,” while sporting as weakness both Gun, Ice and “Curse,” Izuku’s brain momentarily questioning why was there a resistance at all between “Gun” and Quixote’s broad physical resistance, especially since that seemed to also include bullets.

Her stats were abysmal, especially compared to Quixote’s, but the faerie seemed to at least have different abilities compared to his first persona, two in fact, Dia and Zio, with a third one, Patra, unlocking at level 3, placing Pixie directly into Level 2, 2 level lower than Quixote.

Still, Izuku can’t really complain about anything, as he tentatively holds the card in front of him and activates it, barely registering as Quixote disappears from beside him, the sudden change within his soul allowing the small, winged girl to appear right in front of his very eyes.

“I am thou, and thou art I!” The fairy says in a cheery tone, “I am Pixie, first ember of your growing heart. Together, we shall have lots of fun! So, what shall we do first boss?”

She coos down at the sight of the rude boy and chainsaw girl hurt bodies, a cute frown appearing on her features, right before a literal lightbulb appears on top of her head, a cheery smile splitting her mouth open

“Oh, I know, how about I help out those new playmates of ours!” She says with a cheery laugh, “This two are one the house Boss, Dia! Dia!”

And as the faerie utters one, simple word twice, Izuku’s and everyone else world is changed forever.

* * *

Healing Quirks were, by rule, extremely rare.

UA managing to score the Youthful Hero Recovery Girl among their staff, for example, had been a great point of pride for the hero academy over the years, and even that Quirk, as useful as it was, had some severe drawbacks onto the patients’ bodies.

So, Imagine everyone’s shock, especially for one, silent blonde skeleton, when they witnessed, right in front of their very eyes, as one of their examinees produced a small, winged girl off a card he had picked off the ground (?), only for her to freaking _heal_ his fellow examinees, one at a time, by simply sprinkling some fairy dust on them, wounds and bite marks and poisonings and scorch marks receding and reverting back to a far healthier state.

A stunned silence pervades the room, only interrupted by the sound of one of the professors was already shuffling through their examinees’ files, searching for the young boy’s to check on why the hell were they not warned about any of this.

“See, as I said, everything is under control,” Nedzu squeaks with a pleased smile, seemingly unconcerned with everything happening on screen, “I say we should count this as two separate rescues for the issue of rescue points handling right?”

Everyone is still stunned silent, not even having the time and energy to even respond to the rodent’s smug words.

A small ping breaks the silence, everyone flinching at the sudden sound, realizing full well what that meant.

“Oh, the 0-Pointer has finished booting up,” Nedzu squeaks out with a pleased chuckle, “I guess the real test has finally begun!”

* * *

Uraraka Ochako is not sure how to feel about herself right now.

On one hand, ever since the start of the practical exam, she had found plenty of Villain Bots to tag and then drop back onto the ground, easing her initial worry that she wouldn’t had been able find any due to impressive quantity of other examinees competing over them.

With enough robots to waste with her powers, her score suddenly far bigger than what she expected her to get, Uraraka was now far less nervous about her chances of passing the practical exam.

In fact, if her math is right, she should be sporting a nice plump 46 point score at the moment after all the robot wrecking she had taken part in, which probably meant she had by all accounts just passed the test with flying colours by this point.

On the other hand, however, some of those villain bots were starting to look pretty… pitiful to her, even as she mercilessly dropped a 3-Pointer currently missing all its legs back onto a 2-Pointer crawling away from her, pathetic whimpers full with statics escaping its twin mouths and devolving into agonized screams as the two bots collided with each other, the few, unexploded rockets inside the 3-pointer immolating them in a column of fire, as Uraraka’s mounting nausea started making herself painfully known, a loud, unladylike grumble escaping her stomach right as her complexion started turning a slight green.

 _“I have barely the strength for another drop, and after that I’ll probably be stuck vomiting rainbows for the following half a hour,”_ Uraraka thinks, wincing as another grumble escapes her upset stomach, _“51 points should be more than enough to pass, and I think the exam is about to end in 5 minutes anyway, I should probably hide away somewhere and-”_

The sound of screams attracts Uraraka’s attention, turning to her left as she witnesses a few of the examinees that were still hanging around the main plaza of the fake city arguing over a downed Villain Bot.

Something… something wasn’t right, Uraraka’s brows furrowing in concern as she gave the place a better look, destroyed Villain Bot Corpses littering the place as examinees started looking more and more frantic in hunting the few remaining survivors down.

“Stand still you French Fried Bastard!” One of the examinees yells, a grey haired boy, yellow eyes glaring at his opponent and streaming an eyebeam out of them toward his target, who hastily and miraculously manages to pirouette his way out of the sound blast’s path, “This is what you deserve for stealing my 2-Pointer!”

“ _Mon Ami_ , had I not unleashed my fabulous Naval Laser on that villain, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be here to speak with _Moi_ right now.” the blue eyed blonde boy says with a strained smile, one hand going to his tummy and holding it, “Why don’t you just… relax a little, all this stress is bad for your complexion, _oui_?”

“Shut the fuck up you fruit I’ll KILL YOU!”

“Ok, that is definitely not normal!” Uraraka yells as she drops everything and runs in between the two examinees, “Calm down you two, there’s plenty of villain bots to go around for everyone, there’s no need to get greedy over-”

The world shakes and trembles. A wave of force exploding from deep within the faux city, as a massive, towering figure erupts from the middle of the main square.

Everyone stares up in shock, finally coming face to face with the giant, massive robot, the 0-Pointer, the Arena Trap they’ve been warned about during their introductory meeting, a giant, blue mask, sporting a X and a V on it, covering its’ “face,” viscous black ooze streaming down its empty eye holes, trickling down the 0-Pointers’ body.

“DO. NOT. BE. AFRAID.” The robot bellows in a static, distorted voice, a sound being echoed in each of the fake cities nearby, mounting up in volume and distorted static sounds, “FOR. I. AM. **EVERYWHERE**.”

Red lights erupt from within the mask’s holes, scanning down the city in front of it, the frenzied students, staring up at the giant robot with various degrees of terror shining in their eyes, as well as the battered, torn, abused remains of the other Villain Bots, laying dead or agonizing onto the torn streets of the faux city.

““INDIVIDUATED. CIVILIAN. CASUALITIES. INDIVIDUATED. VILLAIN. CULPRITS.”

The slow, towering behemoth starts steaming, the black ooze on his body slowly simmering as more and more smaller masks start sprouting on it, before getting expelled into the hair, only to turn into large, white and striped balls sporting a equally large mouth, a purple tongue coming out of it, floating surprisingly fast toward the examinees down below.

“BEGIN. PURIFICATION. PROCESS.”

Uraraka can already hear the screams starting from all around her, her legs taking a mind of their own and already running away from the scene alongside the two examinees from before. Three of the white balls manage to reach up to her, tongues outstretched, but she manages to miraculously dodge all three of them, the forward momentum making the white ball smash against a each other and go barrelling down a nearby wall, seemingly turning into black ooze after the impact before seeping back into the ground, leaving empty masks behind.

This, unfortunately, manages to destabilize the whole building, already battered and semi destroyed by the long urban warfare it had had to go through that day, and she can already see as a piece of wall as it falls down on one of the running examinees in front of her, the blonde boy from before, Uraraka leaping before thinking as she shoves him out of the way, saving him right as she condemns herself, the rubble pinning her in place, her legs trapped.

The yellow eyed examinee didn’t even stop to look at the commotion behind him as he keeps on running, already on his way out of the fake city, but the blonde one she has just saved is giving her a horrified look, especially after her own cry of pain as she feels _something_ snap beneath the rubble, as he hastily makes his way to her and trying to get the heavy stones away from her, he and Uraraka failing miserably in the process of trying to free her.

“It’s no use, go away,” Uraraka can’t stop herself from saying, their attempts futile, as tears start to pool at her eyes, “My quirk is all used up, even If I were to use it again I’d be unable to leave anyway, and neither of us is strong enough to remove this””

She can hear the heavy stomps of the 0-Pointer rounding the corner, almost as heavy as the sound of her own beating heart, right as she tries to push the blonde boy away from her, “Go away, save yourself at least, we can’t do this alone, come on!”

“But…”

“I said go dammit, go while you still can!” Uraraka snaps, the blonde boy flinching at her tone before steeling himself, giving her one, last hard look, so unlike his previously laidback demeanour, before turning tail and running away from her.

Uraraka sighs in relief at the sight, even as the 0-Pointer finally comes into view, one hand grabbing the top of a building as its red, expressionless mask stares down at her from up above, as if judging her for her sins.

Uraraka’s tears are now streaming freely now, right as her life flashes right before her very own eyes, something dark and cold snapping deep inside her as she irrationally thinks about how much is she gona disappoint everyone back at Inaba if she really is going to die right today, right here, before her journey could truly begin, before she could even become the hero she promised everyone she was going to become.

“INDIVITUATED. VILLAIN. THREAT.” The 0-Pointer’s fist raises up, ready to leave only a red stain upon the destroyed streets below where Uraraka once laid, the young woman raising her arms to her face as she braces for impact, eyes squeezed shut, “BEGIN. PURIFICATION. PROTOCOL.”

And as she feels the giant, mechanical fist descending upon Uraraka, her mind goes blank as one, final thought, the final thought she will probably think in her life, intrudes inside her mind.

_“I’m sorry mom, dad… I- I failed you all…”_

* * *

On a tower in between the various fake cities, Present Mic stares down in absolute horror at the events unfolding all around him, at the absolute chaos swarming around each of the ruined cities as everything went merrily to hell in an handbasket.

His jaw is hanging open, for once in his life finally at a loss for words, as he can’t help but keep on staring as a horde of flying balls with mouths kept on spewing from their prized arena traps, licking at some of their precious future students and, hopefully, just momentarily knocking them out.

And then, as he rationalizes that things could possibly not be any worse than this, as he completely forgets to mark the 2 Minutes time limit before the end of the exam…

Present Mic’s mouth snaps shut, his eyes suddenly trained to one, specific testing facility, and as he sees exactly what is about to happen in one of the fake cities, as one of the examinees, the one who had till then been relying on his familiar quirk to get by for the exam, starts running, nay, galloping at full speed toward a girl who had just been trapped under a pile of rubble, a green, bright glow exuding from all around him and his familiar...

And as Present Mic witnesses what happens next, there is only one, single, solitary thought takes over the entirety of his thought process, as Present Mic gives one, hard look at the spectacle bellow and says:

“I knew this was a bad year to stop drinking.”

* * *

A rush of wind runs past Uraraka, a startled gasp escaping her lips at the sudden pressure, eyes opening and growing wide as she witnesses what is happening in front of her, as if time had just slowed down to a crawl so she could see this one, solitary, terrible moment, as a literal knight in shining armour appears, now jumping in between herself and the 0-Pointer’s raised fist and herself, lance outstretched and glowing a deep green as it launces himself against the goliath.

“SKEWER!” She hears, a desperate, wild cry, coming from somewhere around the knight as the green aura flares brightly, almost blinding her, as the lance elongates and takes on a shiny, metal like gleam, as the moment is broken and the knight’s momentum slingshots him and his horse right against the robot’s giant fist, passing through it like it was a knife through water, the terrible, loud wail of metal tearing itself apart screaming in her hears, the knight’s strength skyrocketing it upward all the way to the robot’s chest, demolishing its giant arm as it passes it from part to part, coming out of its shoulder upward.

“IN- IN- IN- INDIVIDUATED. UNFORSEEN. THRE- AT- AT – AT- AT.” The 0-Pointer wails, glitching out as his destroyed arm lays uselessly to his side, turning toward the still ascending knight “EX- EX- EX- EX- EX- EXTERMINATE-”

Uraraka’s eyes can only grow wider, mouth hanging open is shock, as the glowing knight simply seems to readjust himself mid-air, a second, strong jump over nothing as it pummels against the Robot’s head, lance raised high above it.

From down there, Uraraka can barely hear what the knight says next, her brain mixing up his actual words, be it Bash or Smash, but is of no consequence as the green glow, the green aura all around it only flares brighter, red, sparkling veins appearing on the knight’s armour as it brings down the lance onto the 0-Pointers head with the fury of an angry god, right against its’ mask, breaking it in half as it goes down straight against its unprotected head and obliterated it with one hit, a last, final metallic wail escaping the giant faux villain’s mainframe, seemingly mirrored by several, other metallic wails coming from the other Faux Cities all around them, as if the 0-Pointer’s destruction here had managed to reach each of the other goliaths and mirrored its demise on them.

“RE- RE- RE- RE- RE- REACHED. CRIIIIIIITICAL. DA- DA- DA- DAMAGE. CON- CON- CON- CONDITION.” The 0-Pointer wails loudly as he falls down onto the ground, crashing down against a nearby skyscraper, rubble and dust erupting from its crash site.

“WE… ONLY… DIE… TO… DIE… AAAAAAaagaaaiiinnnnn-”

The dark ooze tainting the 0-Pointer begins evaporating right as the goliath finally stops working, finally shutting down for good. The masked, white balls begin wailing in kind, a dark mirror of the 0-Pointer’s own death scream, their mouths still hanging open as they slowly start decomposing, their now amorphous bodies sinking back into the ground, white balls turning into black goop, disappearing back within the ground as they leave only their masks behind, now broken in half.

“There you are!”

Uraraka turns toward the source of the cry, revealing the blonde examinee she had saved earlier, followed close by by a tall young man, one she vaguely remembered from the debriefing they had all gone through before the practical exam, carrying two, unconscious girls on his back, his tracksuit torn at the shoulder, a faint bite mark on it.

“What- What are you doing here, I told you to run away.” She can’t help but say, all her fight gone from her as reality comes crashing down on her and she realizes how close she had just come to dying, tears already pooling at her eyes.

“Ah, but that wouldn’t make me much of a hero now, wouldn’t it _mon cherie_?” the French boy says with a strained smile as he helps the tall, blue haired boy placing down his passengers on the nearby road, the two girls seemingly knocked out cold, “I went and did the only thing I could to save you, and got some help.”

“This is all highly irregular,” The blue-haired teen says, hand chops momentarily halted as he, the blonde boy and Uraraka manage to finally free her legs from under the rubble, a hiss of relief escaping her even as she sees how swollen her left ankle has now gotten, “Examinees attacking one another, villain bots running away from heroes, monsters that were not on the exam brochure appearing, this is no way to hold a entrance exam for Japan’s top hero academy!”

Uraraka can only chuckle nervously at his words, only for her attention to be directed back upward, to the knight in shining armour who had just saved her…

Only for her to not see him anymore.

Where once was a knight, now is floating, one boy, a green aura surrounding him asd Uraraka’s eyes widen in recognition even from this far away from him, the green haired examinee seemingly unresponsive after his previous impressive feat with what she assumed was his Quirk.

And then, the glowing stops, and with it the boy’s floating, as he starts pummelling fast toward onto his death, down the hard surface below him.

“Oh god he’s gona crash!” Uraraka yells, startling her fellow examinees as she limps her way right below the green haired boy’s landing site before anyone could stop her, gritting her teeth as she ignored the pain shooting up her swollen ankle as her saviour comes crashing down toward her face first.

Having to think fast, Uraraka simply swats at the falling boy, slapping him square in the cheek with impeccable timing as he reaches her, right before he can become a red splatter onto the battered ground below them, a sigh of relief escaping her as his momentum suddenly dies, the boy now gently floating in the air in front of her, Uraraka hastily trying to manhandle him into a less awkward position even as the inevitable starts making itself known to her with another, deep rumbling within her stomach, her cheeks growing into a distinctive shade of green.

“Oh, it’s you, you’re safe,” The boy murmurs, lids heavy, voice strained as if standing between being awake and asleep, probably half unaware of anything he was saying “T-thank you for saving me… We- We should really stop meeting this way.”

Uraraka doesn’t even have the time for the hysterical laughter she was about to emit at his words, right as her quirk finally hits its limits, the green haired boy finally falling down on his back on the now fortunately short distance separating him from the ground with a quiet Ow, followed shortly after by Uraraka, going to her hands and knees as she tries to move away from him as she begun vomiting a pool of rainbows on the hard, cold ground, earning a pair of barely disguised winces of disgust from the other two boys staring at her, as the green haired boy she had just once again saved contently descends back to sleep.

Almost no one even registers Present Mic as he awkwardly announces the end of the Entrance Exam, in the stunned silence pervading the faux cities around him.

Even less people register the broken masks lying on the ground where the monsters once were, nor they notice as they start to disappear into tiny particles of light, only to leave weird, solitary cards behind, before being quickly enveloped into a bright, blue flame.

* * *

A long, tension filled silence pervades the examination room, right as the monsters that had barged in their practical exam finally disappear into black goop.

“Well, I say this was a resounding success.” Nedzu says with a pleased squeak, a teacup as big as his body in front of him as he takes a sip from it.

“Resounding…” One of the professors, now revealed to be the pro hero Ectoplasm, can’t help but repeat, staring incredulously at the principal right as lights started getting back onto the room, momentarily blinding them all, “Resounding success?! Nedzu, you morally bankrupt rat, potential students almost died today! Do you imagine what kind of PR and legal nightmare that would have meant!”

“See, the keyword here is “Almost”” Nedzu simply states before taking another sip from his oversized cup, “This sudden and unexpected incursion didn’t end in any casualties, and has allowed us to truly test our future students in a real, life or death scenario, revealing their true character in the process.”

On screen, replays are shown, as the frenzied examinees attack each other and the robots all around them with barely contained bloodlust, while the other, more sensible ones attempt to get out of the way of them or, in some rare cases, try to stop the in-fighting themselves by getting In between them.

In one, specific screen, barely hidden to the side given how important it is, the UA faculty might be able to see if they cared a short, purple haired, yellow eyed boy, purple balls of hair sticking to the ground and trapping a terrified female examinees beneath, the sound missing from the video as they can see her mouth moving, her eyes desperate, as if she is begging him for something, seemingly unheard by the other examinees as the purple haired midget starts licking his lips, menacingly looming over her, hands outstretched toward her…

Only for one long, pink tongue to barge in from outside the screen’s camera range, enveloping the purple haired boy’s midsection, and tugging at him, launching him away from the whole mess with great force, straight toward the blue sky above as a small, twinkling star appearing in the sky as the midget disappeared into the horizon, to never be seen again, right as a frog-like girl got into view of the camera and started helping out the other girl, freeing her from her trapped, vulnerable position.

“See, this happy little accident has just allowed us to better prevent potential… undesirable students from entering our academy, and is giving us the perfect excuse to deal with any of them, without incurring into potential legal battles in case we were to reject them despite them acing the practical test.” Nedzu says with a pleased squeak, “Whenever we find the man or men responsible for this remind me to thank me for this, after all I think we can all agree that one Captain Celebrity is already one too many in this country, yes?”

“Wait wait wait, hooold up,” Another professor, the pro hero snipe, can’t help but interject, “What do you mean “happy little accident?” this was… this wasn’t your doing all along? I thought this you being your usual shady buckaroo self Nedzu and now you’re telling me this was all someone else’s work?!”

“Of course it wasn’t, the safety of my students is my top priority, I would never lead them into such a unsafe and dangerous situation by choice,” Nedzu lies with the practiced ease of a consumed politician, “I simply capitalized on the opportunity, turning a potential setback into a huge advantage. After all, this does arrive at the most opportune of times.”

“With the recent breach in security in todays’ exam, as well as the many, mysterious Quirks that have been probably used today, among them the mind altering one on some of our potential future students, or the technological one to glitch out Power Loader’s villain bots, which means that it seems our security is not as up to snuff as we would have liked.”

A tense filled silence fills the room as Nedzu pauses for dramatic effect.

“Why, I must say, I think that after today, the hero commission will simply to approve on funding some of my old… proposals, for the better safety of this university and his students of course, and the future of Japan’s future heroes.”

The professors are momentarily stunned by the rat’s words, some of them already beginning to open their mouth, maybe to protest, maybe to point out how convenient this all seemed to be, only to be quieted down by Nedzu’s following words.

“Which of course also happen to include some much-needed pay rises for our esteemed professors,” Nedzu squeaks conciliatorily, the underpaid professors’ mouths snapping shut at his words, “That way, everyone wins, wouldn’t you agree?”

As the professors accept his point with some grumbles, one Yagi Toshinori, better known by his hero name All Might, barely registers the whole exchange, as he keeps on witnessing the scene unfolding right in front of his screen of choice, his successor, passed out but seemingly unbroken, laying beside a girl vomiting her multi-coloured guts out to the side, two other boys at their sides, the blonde one patting the girl on the back and keeping her hair up as she kept on spewing at the side, the other awkwardly standing to the other side, hands chopping in involuntarily, fast motions, as he stares intently at the passed out boy in front of him.

 _“One for All always synergizes with the Quirk of its new holders in incredible, unforeseen ways,”_ All Might thinks grimly as he keeps watching over his pupil, an unreadable expression on his face, _“I’d never had to think about it myself, and yet…_ _And yet I would have never expected how amazingly it would have reacted to your new, mysterious Quirk."_

_""I wonder what the future will hold for us, now that we still have to learn the full scope both of our powers seem to have on you, Young Midoriya."_


	4. Aeon Arcana: Rank MAX; Fool Arcana: Rank III.

The solitary notes coming from a piano that wasn’t there, soon followed by the dulcet tones of an angelic choir slowly lull Izuku awake, eyes opening slightly as he is presented with the by now familiar hues of the Velvet Room, memories from his first 2 visits rushing back to him as he stands in the middle of the empty room, looking around in confusion as he searches for the long-nosed man he usually finds there.

The room seems mysteriously empty this day, however. _Seems_ being the keyword here, for Izuku doesn’t even have the time for sheepishly scratching his neck in confusion that he can already feel the sudden appearance of _something_ looming right behind him, a dark shadow being casted over him from above, freezing him in place as if he was a small bunny that had just been spotted by a hungry bird of prey.

“ ** _Ara Ara~_** **”** A Voice intones right from behind Izuku, his back straightening up instantly as a cold chill runs down his spine, his flight or fight instincts triggering instantly at the words and failing him, the boy not even able to make one step away from the voice before he his summarily held in place by the hem of his shirt “What are you doing here back so soon, weren’t you supposed to return to us in the waking world rather than in a dream Kiddo?”

Anna’s incredibly buff arms grab at him from behind, this right before pirouetting him around on the spot, the sudden motion disorienting him long enough to suddenly fall on top of the older woman’s lap, the two seemingly materializing right on their sofa in front of Igor’s table and now empty chair.

“Then again, I feel like congratulations are in order, I can tell you’ve passed this trial with flying colours, and even saved a cute girl while you were at it, veeeery nice of you, very nice, so nice I think you deserve a _rewaaaard_ ** _~_** _”_ She hums directly into his ear, Izuku’s face growing impossibly red, his hands instantly going to his cheeks, “Oh, If you are looking for the Nose to get you out of this, he’s not here with us right now. He’s out on some not better specified business right now, which means I have you all. For. My. Self.”

Izuku whimpers, his voice unable to come out in the dream-like room he finds himself in, his body firmly held in place by the far stronger woman for a couple more seconds, hands slowly feeling up his surprisingly firm chest despite his stature and frame…

Only for a snort to erupt from her mouth, followed by an uproarious laughter as she drops him back onto the sofa causing him to oof, the boy currently doing his best impression of a tomato as he scrambles away from her, crawling to the other far end of the couch, hands covering his burning face.

“God your face,” The woman attempts to say in between laughs and snorts, “You are so easy to tease kiddo, you better hope no one else in the real world learns about how easy you are or you’re screwed, and I mean that _literally_ …”

Izuku gulps, Anna’s laughter subsiding as she gives him a pensive look, a somewhat… melancholic smile appearing on her lips.

“In all seriousness kiddo, you weren’t half bad, destroying robots, saving damsels in distress, getting saved by damsels in distress...” She compliments him, yellow eyes softening, “You almost make me wish I was a schoolgirl again, the thrill of the entrance exam, the sports festival, your first loves, your first friends, your first fights...”

She shakes her head, confident smirk reappearing on her face, “Look at you, listening to this old granny going on and on about the bad old days while you aren’t even able to say a word, you must be getting so bored of me.”

Izuku’s eyes soften at her words, blush subsiding as he notices how… lonely she looks, right as he shakes his head from side to side, trying to convey to her how she wasn’t boring him at all, hands waving wildly around, earning another laugh from the woman in blue.

“Oh boy, what am I ever going to do with you now,” she says with a teasing smirk, “Mmmmm, we are still too early to open my compendium Kiddo. You are still a bit too… Green behind your ears, way too few Personas and Bonds yet to really work anything out of them, so what to do, what to do…”

“Oh, I know!” She suddenly exclaims, fist going against her open palm, a wide smile splitting her face, “How about you do some little… requests for me? Small little favours really, to help an old woman like me pass the time in this old and stuffy rom while you and the nose are away? Please kiddo, wouldn’t you do this for your favourite attendant?”

Izuku trembles slightly at the gleam going through his attendant’s eyes, gulping down on his saliva as he nods at her against his better judgement, Anna’s smirk turning almost feral at the sight.

“Ah ah, I knew I could count on you, my hero!” She says with an almost mocking smirk, Izuku’s blush only turning into a further shade of red, “So, for my first request…”

* * *

Weeks pass as Izuku recovers from the entrance exam, and our future hero is now finally in the green.

Now finally able to leave his bed without the help of his mother, for starters, the young man can finally wobbles his way around the house, as well as finally able to use his desk to occupy himself with some “Work,” be it paper cranes or notebooks, nerves wrecking at him as he keeps wondering if he had passed the exam or not.

His little stunt in order to save the nice girl has costed him more than he expected.

The instant Pixie had healed the other two examinees, seemingly depleting Izuku’s last, already weakened magical reserves after Quixote’s continued Rebellions, the now healed rude boy had instantly stood back up with a stiff, almost mechanical motion, bowing and thanking him for his assistance, the two young men noticing only then how both the scorched girl with a chainsaw for a hand and the mantis headed one Izuku had had to thrown on the ground happened still seemingly out cold, the clown examinees snoring loudly somewhere nearby.

That’s when another boy, this one blonde and wearing a large belt, as he asked, nay ordered, nay begged them, his voice tinged by a strong, very distinct French accent, to come with him that instant, mentioning how some girl had just been trapped under the rubble while trying to save him and she needed urgent help right now.

Something inside Izuku had snapped at the boy’s words, Pixie disappearing with a startled shriek as he managed, wordlessly, without even calling for his card, to summon back Quixote, his first persona, green flames cloaking him like a aura, stronger than ever before as his persona grabbed once again the back of his shirt and deposited Izuku back on their horse, the poor beast suddenly reaching speeds he had never thought they could ever achieve as they shot up toward the direction the blonde boy had pointed to before anyone could even think of stopping him.

Wind barrier shattering as they zero toward their destination, Izuku’s mind had then gone completely blank, now perfectly in synch with his persona as their strength, their speed, their fervour almost tripled in power the _second_ they saw not just the hulking zero pointer in the distance, towering over someone, but exactly who was said 0-Pointer about to crush into a red stain on the ground with its fist.

Izuku could finally feel the power of One for All, All Might’s Quirk, cruising through his vein, nay, through his very soul, only to channel itself back onto his persona, like water flowing from him onto the knight and horse, strengthening them, empowering them with its radiance, right as they charged at the gargantuan 0-Pointer, almost without thinking, and shattered it into pieces in two, single moves.

What happened next was a blur.

By the time he had managed to two shot the zero pointer, his Quirk, his Persona had already failed him, the knight disappearing into mid-air, a sudden, inexplicable agony shooting through his very body, his scream cut short by the incredible amount of fatigue he hit him soon after, Izuku’s very being seemingly oscillating between passing out and excruciating pain, barely conscious of what was happening around him.

He could feel… something keeping himself up, away from a one way ticket toward the hard ground, something holding onto him for more time he could count, only to fail him right when it was more convenient for him, right when the nice girl he had saved was positioned exactly when she would have been able to save him in time.

Or at least he thought that’s what happened, the whole thing seemed still plenty of confusing to him, his memories of the situation fuzzy and dreamlike.

All Might had cut all connections with him after the exam, so _he_ was no help in explaining what had actually happened, how did he manage to infuse his persona with the power of One for All like the voice had told him he was now able to, or question him about his sudden, spontaneous sprouting of a floating quirk right when he needed it, a fact that only worsened Izuku’s nerves for the results of the entrance exam, or his current condition.

The stunt had taken a toll on his body, his stamina depleted in an instant, fatigue also being one of the few things unable to be fixed up by Recovery Girl’s amazing quirk, leaving him tired, sore and constantly sleep deprived for weeks, dark bags starting to appear beneath his empty, thousand yard stare as a result, constantly worrying his poor mother.

Now, however, Izuku was finally beginning to feel better, his stamina almost back to normal, even as he kept stress making paper cranes, his room by now littered by them as he waited for news, any news to come.

“You are worrying too much kid, you did fine,” Remus the Talking Crow says from Izuku’s windowsill, a meat bowl prepped in front of him as he kept on scarfing it down, “And even if you didn’t get in that’s their loss, not yours. Why, back in my days, we didn’t need any of those fancy swanky government approved military schools to be heroes, we stuck it to the man regardless of what “society” thought of us, that’s what real heroism should be about I say!”

“No, that’s what vigilantism is about,” Izuku says with a tired sigh, “There’s a big difference there, and that’s between receiving a government pay check and a stellar insurance with a top notch dental plan, and being hunted down by the police like a dog.”

“Eh, Tomato, Potato, same thing,” The raven says with a tired sigh, barely registering Izuku’s sputtered complaint as he turned his beak down toward the street outside, “Speaking of which, that looks like the postman leaving, better make myself scarce before-”

“IZUKU!” Izuku’s mom scream as she barges inside her teenaged son’s room without knocking, showing exactly from whose parent did Izuku’s almost suicidal lack of self-preservation instinct came from, the woman missing his pet feral talking raven by a split second as she waves a surprisingly heavy letter in her hands, “The letter came, the letter from UA came oh god!”

Izuku gulps, nerves coming back full force as he manages to get out his bed, his sore muscles barely hurting anymore as he hastily makes his way to her and grabs at the envelope, a sense of dread hanging in the air at the sight.

“I’ll… I’ll be right outside,” His mother says after a small pause, “Juts… just know that whatever happens, I’m so very proud of you for following your dreams and trying no matter what I- What everyone else thought.”

“T-thanks mom,” Izuku stammers out, swallowing the heavy lump forming in his throat as she leaves him alone in the room, trembling hands holding the heavy package as she moves toward his desk and opens it, only to reveal a small, mechanical device within it.

“What-”

“I AM HERE!” The mechanical device booms as it projects the large, imposing figure of All Might, a startled cry coming out of Izuku at the sight, “INSIDE THIS PROJECTION!”

“What the- I thought this was from UA!” Izuku yells in shock, staring up at the holographic figure of his mentor.

“DO NOT FEAR, FOR THE REASON I AM HERE? IS TO TEACH THIS YEAR… AT UA!”

Izuku’s mind skids to a halt at the sudden information, right before instantly going a mile a minute wondering who else was being privy of this, was this a recording for him and him alone, or was he making this messages for everyone who had got in? Maybe-

“THIS IS A MERE RECORDING YOUNG MIDORIYA, AND YET I CAN ALREADY HEAR THAT BIG BRAIN OF YOURS OVERTHINKING THIS, SO, PLEASE, STOP.”

A small, nervous chuckle escapes Izuku’s lips, right as someone starts seemingly berating All Might off camera, Izuku resisting the sudden urge of apologizing to a recorded message.

“AS I WAS SAYING, YOU HAVE SCORED 22 VILLAIN POINTS DURING THIS YEAR’S PRACTICAL EXAM!” All Might’s booming voice points out, proving Izuku’s own mental math from the exam right, “UNFORTUNATELY, THAT PLACES YOU RIGHT IN LAST PLACE AMONG ALL THE EXAMINEES IN TERMS OF DEFEATED BOTS, QUITE THE FEAT IF YOU ASK ME GIVEN THE ABSURD QUANTITY OF MECHANICAL FOES YOU ALL HAD TO FACE IN THIS YEAR’S EXAM!”

Izuku’s world shatters as if it was glass, his eyes growing blank, dread filling his bones, tears already pooling in his eyes as All Might’s larger than life form takes one, incredibly small dramatic pause as he realizes exactly who he had just told this to, a hint of panic flashing behind hie eyes, perfect smile wavering for just a second as he hastily gets back onto his speech.

“BUT TAKE HEART, YOUNG MIDORIYA, FOR A HERO ACADEMY THAT GRADES THEIR STUDENTS ONLY BY THEIR CAPACITY TO CAUSE HARM IS NO HERO ACADEMY AT ALL!” All Might hastily says, a kindle of hope sparking within Izuku’s heart, the young persona user looking up at his mentor in wonder, “INDEED, DUE TO AN… UNEXPECTED TURNING OF EVENTS, THE PRACTICAL PART OF THE EXAM HAS BEEN SLIGHTLY OVERHAULED!”

“NOW, LOOK AT THIS GRAPH!”

A large chart overtakes the screen, obscuring All Might’s form as it revealed those who had ranked among the first 10 in the entrance exam, Izuku’s eyes going wide as he could clearly see his name there, as well as his three scores.

“WHILE UA HAD ALWAYS AWARDED SECRET POINTS FOR THOSE WHO HAPPENED TO RESCUE FELLOW EXAMINEES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ENTRANCE EXAM WITHOUT EXPECTING ANY SORT OF PERSONAL GAIN FROM IT, DUE TO THE SUDDEN INFLATION OF VILLAIN BOTS CAUSED BY AN… UNEXPECTED GLITCH WITHIN THE SYSTEM, AS WELL AS THE CONDUCT OF SEVERAL OTHER EXAMINEES JEOPARDIZING THE SAFETY OF MOST PROSPECTIVE HERO STUDENTS, UA HAS DECIDED TO INCLUDE THE SCORE ACHIEVED DURING THE WRITTEN PART OF THE EXAM TO THE FINAL RANKINGS FOR THE ENTRANCE EXAM TO THE HERO COURSE!”

Izuku can’t help but keep staring at his name on the chart now on screen, as he, eyes wide with shock as realization finally sinks into him.

Midoriya Izuku had managed to reach second place on the UA Entrance Exam.

Midoriya Izuku, the same boy everyone had told to he would have never managed to become a hero, that he would have never managed to enter UA, had managed to land on the second place of THE top hero academy of Japan’s entrance exam.

To top it all off, assuming the whole thing was calculated on a 1 to 100 score, he had also apparently managed to get the maximum score on the written exam, somehow, a large, excited smile splitting his face at the sight, mentally thanking all the people in his life for making such inane, yet so easily rememberable questions such as “What does the figure in figure skating refer to” or “When were numbers invented?”

Izuku spends a couple more seconds to familiarize himself with the chart, his future schoolmates, some dread returning to him as he recognizes one of the names on it.

First place was a certain Uraraka Ochako, sporting 51 Villain Points, 69 Written Points, and 159 Rescue Points, for a total of 279 Total Points.

Second was Izuku, sporting his incredibly low 22 Villain Points score, followed by his impressive 100 Written Points, and his 150 Rescue Points, for a total of 272 Total Points.

Third Place went to a certain Kendo Itsuka, sporting only 29 Villain Points, as well as 97 Written Points and 123 Rescue Points for a total of 249 Total Points.

Fourth place was one Kirishima Eijiro, for a total of 41 Villain Points, followed by 61 Written Points and a whooping 120 Rescue points, Leading to a total of 222 Total Points.

Fifth Place went to Iida Tenya, for a whopping 78 Villain Points, followed by 94 Written Points as well as 39 Rescue Points, for a total of 211 Total Points.

Sixth Place went to one Shiozaki Ibara, for a 69 Villain Points score, as well as a 69 Written Point score and a 69 Rescue Point score, for a total of 207 Total Points.

Seventh Place was landed by one Asui Tsuyu, earning herself 37 Villain Points, as well as 81 Written Points and 67 Rescue Points, for a total of 185 Total Points.

In the Eight place, was a name Izuku knew far too well, revealing one Bakugou Katsuki, sporting 113 Villain Points, the highest on the chart, as well as 71 Written Points and a whopping 0 Rescue Points, ending up with 184 Total Points.

Then, on the Ninth Place, was one Aoyama Yuga, scoring a meagre 26 Villain Points, as well as a follow up score of 76 Written Points and 60 Rescue Points, for a total of 162 Total Points.

And finally, the Tenth Place went to one Shinso Hitoshi, sporting a meagre 24 Villain Points, followed by an 89 Written Points as well as 40 Rescue Points, ending the chart on a total of 153 Total Points.

Izuku still couldn’t believe his eyes, tears of joy streaming down his cheeks, right as All Might showed back up on the screen.

“SO, HAVE NO FEAR YOUNG MIDORIYA!” All Might’s booming voice bellows his final words, “FOR YOU HAVE GOTTEN IN! THIS, IS THE START OF YOUR HERO ACADEMY!”

* * *

Midoriya Inko is a natural worrywart.

She had always been one, the world never really having been to kind for her, with a husband who bailed on her and their young son the second he knew what he was, or back in school, her quirk far too weak to be properly used for hero work, or the other kids being far too rowdy and reckless with their games, scrapping their knees and falling off trees and using their dangerous quirks on each other while roughhousing, a young Inko, already labelled a cry-baby by the rowdiest, meanest of them, only able to stare in fright as they hurt each other and themselves, band aids and disinfectant a constant feature within her backpack from pre-school to university.

So, it’s only natural for her to fret behind her son’s closed door, as two very distinct futures open in front of her.

In one, her son’s dream is crushed, and he has not been able to make the cut and get inside UA. Inko could only imagine how… devastating that would be for her beloved son, but in the end, she would have still tried to be supportive of him, maybe would have tried to get him to follow a less… dangerous dream.

He would have still been able to save and help people without constantly risking his life after all, if he decided to follow other, less… physically taxing jobs, especially now that his condition had finally been changed, his Quirklessness finally not a cause for his discrimination anymore, even if it did seem to take such a heavy hit on his sleeping schedule.

Still, like this was Schrodinger’s most hyperactive cat however, Inko needed to also consider the… another scenario, another reality, the one where the cat wasn’t dead, so to speak, and Izuku had been taken in UA.

The reality she seemed to live in right now, as Izuku’s door opens, revealing a crying, yet brightly smiling Midoriya Izuku to her, Inko’s heart steeling itself and preparing to only more heartaches eyes watering in reflex, even as her own mouth splits into an ecstatic smile of joy over her son’s accomplishments, mother and son hugging in the middle as tears flew freely from their eyes.

If Izuku found his mother’s tight grip on him uncomfortable, he never let her know.

* * *

“I’m so proud of you Izuku,” Izuku’s mom tells him for what feels is the hundredth time, right as they are having some celebratory Katsudon at their kitchen’s table, tears finally dried up, “I… I know I’ve never been the most supportive of mothers when it comes to your dream, and you know I’ll always worry for you but… I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that I feel like the luckiest mom in the world for having you as my son right now.”

“M-mom…” Izuku stammers out, eyes watering a little at her words and her soft, melancholic smile, “Don’t worry, I promise I’ll be careful.”

“I- I know you will,” Izuku’s mom replies with a soft smile, “Because you are a good boy… no, a good man Izuku, one who will always think of others before he thinks about himself, and even if I think that’s reckless and dangerous… that also makes you a hero. My Hero.”

Now the tears are flowing back for both, unfortunately spilling back into their Katsudon and potentially salting it beyond measure, as Izuku lips tremble at her words.

“You’re my hero too mom.”

Time slows to a crawl, startling Izuku even as he still cries, even as he still feels his mother’s love, pride, support deep within him, culminating into one, single feeling.

**“Thou Art I… I am Thou… The Bond you have always had within you has reached its full maturity...”**

A card appears in between himself and his mother, spinning as the words reverberate in the room, before stopping and shining brightly, almost blinding Izuku as it’s rank, the one the other two cards from his previous links had, suddenly found itself with 10, bold tacks, below the image of a bird-faced man with a staff standing within a circle, or maybe an egg, rays erupting off of it, a double X placed above it.

 **“These unbreakable bonds shall help thou fulfil your Dreams for a Better World,”** The voice informs Izuku, something settling deep within his heart, **“Thou shall be blessed when creating the Personas of the Aeon Arcana”**

The card shines brighter, almost blinding Izuku as the voice keeps on droning on.

 **“Thou have been** **granted the ability to create Kaguya, the ultimate form of the Aeon Arcana, once thy soul has grown enough for her to join you in your quest.”**

Izuku’s eyes widen at the words, not fully understanding the words as the card sinks inside his body, a warm feeling of safety and love enveloping him right as time turned back o his proper speed, restarting his mother’s waterworks in the process.

“I… I have a present for you,” Inko says in between sobs, leaving the kitchen only to return shortly after with a large package.

“I… I know it’s not really up to par with what you’ll probably get at school but…” She hands him the package, Izuku opening it with a curious frown as it revealed the soft, green fabric of a hero costume beneath, “I… I made this myself, I hope it will help you remember me by while you are at UA with all the new friends… Friends I’m SURE you’re going to make there…”

Izuku hugs at his mom, tears once again flowing from his eyes as he barely registers the voice softly whispering in his ears about how he had just obtained “Key-Green Rabbit’s Costume” from his mother.

“Don’t worry mom, as if I’d ever forget you…” Izuku says as he hugs the shorter woman, her own hug on him tightening once again.

“I know I know you’ll write and call me every day It’s just… every mother knows that one day their children will leave the home for their next big adventure, I just never expected it to happen so soon to me.”

“Uh?” Izuku genially says as her words finally sink in, stiffening under his mother’s arms “What- What do you mean mom, I’m just going to university, it’s not like I’m leaving you or anything…”

Midoriya Inko chuckles, a soft, melancholic smile appearing on her face as she removed herself from the hug, so to better look her son right in the eyes.

“You didn’t know Izuku? The Hero Commission has recently passed a series of regulation to ensure safety within hero universities. You’ll have to transfer to the university’s dorms a couple days before the start of the term.”

And, once more with feeling, Izuku’s world shatters as if it was glass.

* * *

“ALL MIGHT!”

“Where?!” The blonde skeleton that definitely wasn’t All Might yells as he looks around startled, definitely searching for the pro hero as blood erupts from his mouth, his pupil and successor having ran all the way up to him to their beach after the Pro Hero’s message to finally meet up after days of radio silence.

Izuku breaths heavily, hands on his knees and winded up after the short run due to his stamina still having to recover, attempting to communicate with his mentor and failing after each breath.

“Slow down Young Midoriya, you should take it easy and celebrate having passed the entrance exam,” All Might says with a smirk, parring his student’s back down, “Speaking of which, I hope you’ve not assumed you had managed to get in due to nepotism or anything, the school knows nothing about our partnership together, which means the professors judgement was completely impartial over-“

“What’s this story about UA forcing me to live in dorms?!” Izuku finally manages to stammer out, his breath caught, interrupting All Might with a panicked look in his eyes, “What if the students there hate me or think I’m weird and I end up getting my room trashed every day? God what about my mother, I can’t leave her alone what if someone happens to her, what if-”

“You need to calm down, Young Midoriya, take slow, deep breath alongside me ok?” All Might says with a reassuring tone, one many a hero had perfected over the years in order to put civilians at ease during dangerous situations, as he helps Izuku out with each breath, fortunately managing not to spew out blood in the process.

“The world is not going to end any time soon, and I don’t really see the issue with dorms. By remaining on university grounds all the time, the faculty can easily guarantee you health and safety, especially after some of the new regulations had strengthened UA and the other universities own security programs. You’ll be as safe as you’ll ever be in there, trust me.”

Izuku, now a bit calmer, nods slowly at All Might’s word, looking dejectedly at the side.

“But enough about that, we need to celebrate your spectacular accomplishments!” All Might cheerily say, one arm going to Izuku’s shoulder, “And I know exactly how to do so!”

* * *

“That’ll be 6000 Yens thanks.”

All Might pays the delivery girl for the large, gargantuan bowls of meat she had just given them, sitting back on the soft sand of the beach as if he’s doing a picnic with Izuku, the young woman standing there as he stares at them for a couple long seconds more.

All Might shrinks a little under her stare, before realization hits him as he produces a couple more bills, tipping the delivery girl as she accepts his money with a monotone hum, before moving back to her nearby scooter and riding away on the soft sand, somehow, already on her way to make new deliveries.

“Who would have thought, All Might doesn’t tip essential workers unless he has to,” Izuku comments with a neutral, almost monotone tone, eyes blank and staring at the now clean beach and the sea in front of them.

A now sheepish All Might chuckles awkwardly at his words, before looking at their respective giant bowls of meat.

“Now, this is the true meal for a conquering hero!” he bellows, spitting out blood as his enthusiasm gets at him, before turning back to his now unresponsive student, “It’s also big enough it will also give us ample opportunity to talk about your Quirk in peace, don’t you say?”

Izuku perks up a little at that, turning toward All Might with large, questioning eyes, a bit of life getting back into them.

“So, I’m sure you have lots of questions about… everything, and I think I’ll be able to answer at least a couple of them,” All Might says with a tired chuckle, “So, how about we make it you ask me a question, and I ask you one, that way we can compare notes and all, after all we have all the time in the world before either of us finishes our bowls, we can take it easy.”

Izuku nods, opening his bowl and starting to pick at the veritable ocean of meat within it.

“Ok, what can you tell me about… when One for All started flowing through my Persona? Right at the end of the entrance exam.”

“I have no concrete idea, but I have a theory,” All Might admits in between scarfing down at his own meat bowl, “You see, One for All always had some interesting… synergies with the quirks of its wielders, absorbing them within itself and empowering them as much as it did the wielder’s bodies. Maybe your Quirk, since it seems to produce two bodies within one soul, has also been affected by it, splitting up your power and sharing it between your Persona and you, if not outright channelling it all into your familiar.”

Izuku hums pensively, “Uhm, makes sense I guess, but then why did I get suddenly so sore and tired all of a sudden?”

“My best guess?” All Might says with a pensive frown, “Your body still isn’t ready to control the full might of One for All, trying to channel it right now would had simply shattered your limbs after one, single punch, by directing it back onto your Persona, however, your body was safe from the after effects, while also enhancing the drawbacks of your own Quirk’s power, which as you know are-”

“Using my own stamina to empower my Persona’s moves!” Izuku says as realization hits him, “By adding One for All to it, I was probably subjected to ten, no, one thousand times the drawback for a normal Bash or Skewer, hence why I’m still sore and tired today even despite all the time that had passed!”

“Exactly Young Midoriya!” All Might cheers back, blood spewing off his mouth again, “Or at least that’s our best educated guess, we still don’t know much about how either of our Quirks truly work when paired together, we might be incredibly off base here for as much as we know…”

“Alright then, my turn now,” All Might returns saying after a small pause as Izuku keeps on chewing more of his meat, a pensive frown on his face “When you… when you started floating, at the end of the practical exam… Did you… feel anything? Hear anything?”

Izuku swallows his food and frowns, deep in thought as he mulls about All Might’s question, “Mmmmm, I’m sorry All Might, that part of the test was really hazy, I was barely keeping myself awake… I remember this… feeling, deep within me and all around me, as if I was held up by… something or someone, not letting me fall if not at the right time. Why, is it important?”

All Might’s frown deepens, Izuku giving his mentor a worried look in response as the two sits there silently for a second.

“That… power, the floating one…” All Might tentatively say, voice choking up a little, for once in the last 6 years not due to any blood, “It was… it was my own predecessor’s Quirk.”

Izuku’s breath catches at All Might’s words, eyes widening as countless questions start forming in his mind.

“You know how I told you about how One for All synergizes with its Quirks in mysterious ways? Well, it also… stockpiles them within it, so to be accessed by future holders in their time of need. I simply… wasn’t expecting this to happen so soon to you, especially not… that Quirk.”

Izuku stares at All Might’s sunken eyes for what feels like a long time, his hand tentatively reaching out for him and patting him at his arm. He contemplates for one, terrible second if he should push more out of him, further probe him for answers regarding his own mentor, before thinking better of it.

All Might will tell him about them when he’s ready.

Instead, Izuku asks…

“Oh, by the way, eh eh eh” Izuku stammers out with a nervous chuckle, trying to hastily change the subject “what was the deal with… everything that happened during the test? The UA video mentioned some glitches happening, what was up with that? And what about those… creatures that came out of the villain bots at some point, the balls with the large tongues?”

“Ah, I was actually hoping you’d tell me about it yourself Young Midoriya.” All Might sheepishly says as he scarfs down some more meat, “Between you and me, not even UA fully understand what actually went down during the entrance exam. An investigation is still ongoing, and we are not excluding anything from a student’s mind-altering quirk going Haywire all the way to villains infiltrating the entrance test and messing with the Bots.”

“V-villains?!” Izuku stammers out in fright, chocking on the piece of meat he had attempted to eat during All Might’s answer.

“Again, we are still unsure about anything,” the pro hero concedes, “What can you tell me about them? You were right there when it happened after all. In fact, if I remember correctly from the recordings, if I didn’t know any better, I would have said that you seemed… involved with the whole thing, somehow.”

Izuku sputters at All Might’s words, chocking once again on his meat as he is gently batted behind his back by him.

“I-Involved? Me?!” Izuku manages to stammer out, a cold sweat running through his body at All Might’s words, “Oh god does UA think I’m involved oh god am I going to get arrested are they gona throw me in jail for the rest of my life oh god oh no-”

“Calm down young Midoriya, that was a hypothetical, I was probably the only one who had noticed anything,” All Might attempts to calm down his student with a conciliatory tone, “I just saw one of the… creatures go to you and fade away, leaving a card behind for you to summon. I think all the other teachers were far too preoccupied with the mess that was going on to really notice anything, and the second your new familiar started healing your comrades they all probably just focused on that and forgot everything else.”

“What was that about by the way?” All Might continues on, a frown appearing on his brow, “The… small winged lady healing your new friends I mean, how did that happen? I thought you could only summon that knight of yours…”

Izuku calms down a little, but only a little, as a pensive frown appears on his brow, seemingly deep in thought even as he chews on yet another piece of meat.

“I’m not sure,” Izuku says after some time, “The… the creature came out of a 1-Pointer. The robot looked… so battered and broken I didn’t feel… right in breaking down further. I think they were connected, or at least it realized I had spared it or something, because then it started… rubbing at my leg? Think a cat, but incredibly slimy and gross. Anyway, next thing I know, the creature disappears, and behind it there’s my… new Persona, as you said.”

All Might hums, deep in thought, something… inscrutable going behind his eyes as he stares deep at sea.

“Can I… can I meet her?” He asks, voice unreadable, and Izuku can only nod as a response.

He removes his bowl from his lap and places it on the ground beside him, momentarily blanching as he realizes that despite all the meat he has eaten, the gigantic meat bowl has barely taken a dent, before shaking his head wildly, trying to get back into focus.

He hadn’t tried summoning anything ever since the entrance exam had ended, not wanting to aggravate his condition more, which meant this was the first time he tried summoning something that wasn’t Quixote in his hands.

Could he even do it?

“Per… Sona?” Izuku asks tentatively, one hand already out to catch either of the cards appearing in blue flame… only for a startled shriek erupting from his lips, as a veritable mountain of packs drops from above his head, burying him beneath them.

“Young Midoriya!” All Might yells, alarmed, his skeletal arms digging at Izuku’s makeshift tomb and hoisting him out, a startled, panicked Izuku looking back at the mountain in fright.

“What… what the heck was that?!”

All Might frowns, his own meat bowl forgotten to the side as he tentatively picks up one of the booster packs.

“Persona Booster Pack – Tatsumi’s Secret Escapes” All Might reads pensively one of the packs in his hands, fished among the many that had come out of Izuku, some of them sporting completely different colours or names, “Does this say anything to you?”

“N-no?” Izuku says, brows furrowed a she grabs another pack, this one named “Persona Booster Pack – Tokyo’s Flavourful Hearts,” “I have no Idea what any of these things are.”

“Well, they say they are “Booster Packs”” All Might comments with a frown, before his remaining two braincells finally meet each other in his skull and spark one, sudden thought inside of him, “Wait, I’ve seen those things somewhere… Of course! They were on the recordings for the entrance exam, when all the floating ball monsters disappeared, their masks were the last thing to do so! It was barely a second, but I remember something looking really like those same packs on the ground were the masks once stood, right before they disappeared too!”

He keeps staring at the pack in his hand, glaring at it as if he was some sort of terrible villain, “But why do they appear right here? Right now? These things claim to be “Booster Packs,” may this be a way for your Quirk to make you earn new cards? From defeating insurmountable foes?”

Izuku’s eyes widen, “I… I don’t know All Might, this sounds incredibly convenient. Hell, we don’t even know if those things really contain new Personas like the card I got during the entrance exam, and even if it were, I feel like casual Booster Packs seem… far too much based on luck to actually be used reliably to grow-”

“Well, only one way to find out young Midoriya!” All Might says with a smirk, tossing the unopened pack in his hands to his charge, “Open one up and let’s see for ourselves.”

Izuku gulps slowly at All Might’s words, a spike of fear stabbing at his heart only to be easily overcome by his mentor’s encouraging smile,

Izuku shook his head from side to side as he steeled his nerves, trembling hands going to the upper corner of the Booster Pack, and opening it with one, single tear.

5 Cards drop on Izuku’s lap, the boys’ trembling hands grabbing at them and bringing them level with his face, eyes narrowing slightly.

“I’m pretty sure none of those are personas…” Izuku says with a frown, taking the first card in his hands, one featuring one large coin on it, the rest of the pack going to his other hand, as he tentatively holds it out in front of him.

“Persona?” Izuku asks again, the word seemingly be a catch all for everything as the card bursts into blue flame, disappearing entirely as one, small satchel appears in its place, dropping on his lap with a soft thud. Izuku’s eyes widen as he opens the satchel, only to reveal a couple of coins within it.

“That’s around… 500 yens I think, give or take?” Izuku says, eyes wide, passing the satchel to All Might, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, that’s nothing given the super-inflation we’ve been into since the start of the century but… Oh god did my Quirk just… gave me money?! Are they even real money or are they forgeries??? Oh god what happens if I try to pay something with them by mistake does that make me a criminal????”

“Calm down Young Midoriya, let me try something.” All Might says with a calming tone right as he brings one of the coins to his mouth and bites it, seemingly satisfied with his makeshift test.

“I have no idea if this is actually fake money.” All Might concedes after a long pause, “I just always wanted to bite a coin to see if it was genuine, and now I’ve done it! Another item off my bucket list.”

Izuku’s panic is not helped in the slightest by All Might’s antics, the man awkwardly chuckling under Izuku’s glare as he started to sheepishly scratch the back of his neck.

“We’ll have to get them checked out somewhere,” He concedes after a while, before eagerly motioning back to the rest of the card, “Now, prove the other ones, let’s see what they do.”

Izuku frowns as he turns back to the cards he took from the pack, before grabbing another one, this one featuring a blue cup, and triggering it like he did the one before.

A cool, calming sensation washes over him, feeling some of the tiredness he had been saddled with since the day of the entrance exam finally wash away from him, Izuku staring at his now empty hand.

“So, what happened?” All Might asks with a worried frown, “Did it do anything?”

“It seems the cup cards refills some of my stamina back,” Izuku says with a small smile, “That’s… that’s great! It means if I manage to get enough of them now, I’ll be able to be back to tip top shape faster than before!”

“Mmmmm, that is indeed some great news Young Midoriya,” All Might concedes with an excited smile, “Now, do go on, let’s see what’s next!”

Izuku’s smile widens a little before setting into one, firm line as he grabs at another card, this one a green wand, and triggers it. Unlike before, no actual effect seems to be taking place, even despite the bright light suddenly enveloping Izuku, leaving the two men scratching their heads in wonder over what had happened.

Next, is a card featuring the same white ball with a mouth from the entrance exam. Izuku’s eyes widen, imagining this is maybe some other personas for him, only to deflate slightly when he triggers his new card, only to receive a red, weirdly shaped small stone in return.

“A gem of some sort?” All Might comments as he takes the crimson gem in his hand, “Never seen one like this before, might need to have it evaluated alongside the money to see if this is also legitimate.”

Izuku’s eyes grow wider at All Might’s words, “Wow, my Quirk… it really wants me to become rich uh?”

“Maybe…” All Might concedes with another deep frown, “So, what does the next card do?”

The last card, featuring one red sword, doesn’t disappear, turning instead into a second card, while still not being a persona.

“Cleave.” Izuku reads with a frown, “The persona deals light physical damage on their target, by cleaving at them with their weapon or other such implements.”

“A flashcard maybe?” All Might wonders with a frown, “That way you’ll be able to know your persona’s abilities without having to try them out beforehand? This might give you a tactical advantage of some sort.”

“Maybe…” Izuku concedes with his own frown of contemplation, “Or maybe this is something completely different, maybe I can use these red sword cards to teach my personas skills? But if that were the case, is this mono-use or can I teach it as many times as I like? I’m… I’m not sure, I’d need to have Quixote out to check it…”

Izuku holds his hand forward, once again trying to call his persona cards, but to no avail, only causing the mountain of booster packs at his side to glow faintly.

He tries two more time before giving up with a sigh of defeat.

“Darn… It seems- It seems I’m unable to summon anything till those things are all dealt with…” Izuku comments with a strained smile, attempting once more to summon his personas to no avail, “I’m… I’m sorry All Might, I’m not sure I’ll be able to show you my new Persona today, not if I have to get through all these packs first…”

Something unreadable passes through All Might’s eyes at Izuku’s words, his own resigned sigh escaping his lips.

“Don’t you worry, we have all the time in the world to check on it when you’ll be safely at UA in a controlled environment,” He says in a jovial tone, even with his voice a bit strained, “Well, no matter, we’ll just have to dig through the lot of these packs twice as fast if we want to fully enjoy the rest of our meals later, how about it Young Midoriya?”

Izuku’s face splits into a small smile as he nods at his mentor, a new booster pack back inside his hands and tearing it open, completely missing the wince of pain coming from him as he hold his left side with his hand, a wince hastily covered by a jovial, far too jovial smile and a cheery note of encouragement.

“Come on Young Midoriya, let’s not slack off now, we have plenty of more Cards Packs to open, and the night is still young!”

Izuku’s smile only widens, nodding at his mentor as he grabs another pack and tears it open, only to reveal a set of 5 wands within it.

It’s gona be a long evening.

* * *

It’s the last pack of the pack of packs Izuku had been saddled with, the 100th pack in fact, a “Inaba’s Foggy Delights” Booster Pack, and Izuku is in for a surprise.

“WOAH, LEGENDARY!” Izuku’s own personal disembodied voice bellows, startling the boy and making him jump off his seat right as the cards in the pack he just opened drop around his lap with a jerk of his hands, startling All Might in turn.

“Young Midoriya are you all right?!” All Might asks with a worried frown, only for his eyes to widen as he looks at the 5 cards in Izuku’s lap, the usual two-coin, one wand and a cup… As well as what looked exactly like a Persona Card.

Izuku, now calmed down a little, picks up the specific card in his trembling hands, examining side to side, his brows furrowing slightly in confusion.

The card, the Persona… was Pixie.

Except she wasn’t.

The card was a bright yellow, in direct contrast with Quixote’s pale blue or the dark red of the Entrance Exam’s Pixie, this one showing the same set of resistances and weaknesses as Quixote’s card, sporting only a resistance to wind as well as a weakness to fire.

The stats were also a little different, if completely abysmal still, her skill the same Dia, the apparent healing Quirk the “Red” Pixie also had, as well as another ability named Patra, Zio now relegated to LV 3 instead, this Pixie being the same LV 2 as the other one.

The number on the top left was also different, not the six in roman numeral than the Red Pixie, but a single, solitary I instead.

Izuku stares wide eyed at it for one, long second alongside All Might.

“It seems… It seems I got the same persona again… but not quite…” Izuku mutters as he keeps staring at the card, “The fact I’ve gotten it only on the last pack implies this is either something really rare, or a fixed rate on either the last pack in every batch, OR the 100th pack within every packs opened. How many personas are put there? And if there are doubles, doubles of different sets, then how many more do those make? What about Quixote, are there more of them out there to collect or-”

“Young Midoriya,” All Might gently interjects with a strained smile, “Is that… is that that persona of yours with the… healing Quirk?”

Izuku’s mind skids to a halt as realization instantly hits him, looking up at his mentor, his broken, scarred mentor, who had now been told there was a miraculous little fairy that had eased and almost cured 3rd degree burns on some random girl during the entrance exam.

“I… I Don’t know…” Izuku says after much deliberation, “She does have the same ability, however. Do you… do you want me to call her out?”

“I… I would appreciate if you did that, yes.” All Might says after a long pause, “At least… at least to check on something.”

Izuku gulps as he summons his new persona out, the remaining cards in the back bursting in blue flames as the small faerie appears in front of him with a giggle.

“Thou art I, and I art Thou!” She says, her voice high and giggly, so similar and yet so different to the other Pixie, “I am Pixie, I shall be the spark that ignites your imagination! Let’s have lots of fun together sir!”

“Ah, this one… this one talks.” All Might mentions with a frown, the faerie turning toward him before giggling a little.

“Hey, Pixie, do you… do you remember me?” Izuku asks with a frown, gaining a cute pout from the diminutive woman in front of him, “We met each other during the Entrance Exam? You healed some people for me…”

“Mmmmm, nope, never seen you before sir,” the Pixie says with a cheery smile, “You might however have met one of my many sisters, those lovestruck merrymakers. We are as many as the children of man after all, even if only I have seemingly devoted myself to the hussle and the clever craft rather than to spend my time tricking fools into falling in love with donkeys…”

“Oh.” Izuku politely says, many years spent as a professional mutterer allowing him to recognize a colleague on sight.

“But where are my manners sir, so, what’s your first task for me? Want me to make some halfwit get back all his wits?”

Izuku eyes back All Might with a concerned look, the pixie following his gaze and floating toward the skeletal man, eyeing the small faerie with wide, astounded eyes, hands trembling at his side.

“Ah, you look more like a no-wit than a halfwit to me, I don’t know if a single Patra will work…” The Pixie mutters beneath her breath, Izuku sputtering as panic overcomes him, trying to apologize for his Quirk.

“No no, I need- I need…” All Might stammers out, voice choking with both blood as well as… _something else_.

“Can you heal me?”

The Pixie Hums, giving the skeletal husk of a man one, long look, zipping all around him and pocking at him, each poke like making him wince as if he had just been stabbed.

“Nope, no can’t do,” The Pixie squeaks out with a cheery tone, popping the P more than she should have, “My Dia is far too basic to repair such old and sustained damage. You’ll have to ask someone with far more powerful healing magic.”

Izuku and All Might choke on their spit at the small fairy’s words, Izuku’s startled eyes running between his mentor and his persona.

“So, is there… is there someone out there who can heal me?” All Might Stammer out, an ember of hope shining through his voice, “Someone like you?”

“I mean, I guess?” The Pixie answers with a pensive pout, “Again, I’m just a small time field medic so you can’t really ask me to, like… regrow entire organs after years of atrophy, but everyone knows The Queen has always had a knack for healing people, so I guess there’s here, but she would not make a contract with my current master right now, far too young, far too inexperienced for her tastes… Maybe some of my sisters’ patrons too? You’d sure need a Diarahan at the very least, maybe an Amrita too, or a Salvation from one of the Aspects of the Morning Star…”

“And I… I can get those personas?” Izuku asks the thankfully sentient Pixie, hands already going to his by now ever-present notebook and scribbling down all this new information, “I can get those personas and… use them to heal All Might?”

“Awww, of course you can master!” The Pixie says with a cheery tone, Izuku sputtering at her moniker for him, “But, like… you can’t right now, far too weak to contain their power and all you know? Some don’t even appear to people outside of very specific circumstances, and even if you managed to fuse some more of us in order to artificially invoke one of them, they’d still not recognize you as their holder till they are appropriately satisfied with you and your bonds.”

The Pixie’s words seem to go over’s All Might’s head, small tears pooling at the side of his eyes, only one thing being registered by him.

“There’s a chance.” He says, come blood slowly streaming down his nose, “There’s a chance. I lost all hope ever since that day but now you tell me there’s a chance.”

“If there really is a chance,” Izuku says, almost without thinking, a deep sadness settling within him as he witnessed his childhood hero’s look, “If I can really find a way to heal you… Then I swear All Might, I swear on my collection of All Might’s signature action figures I’ll do everything that is in my power and then some to find a way!”

All Might’s eyes are sparkling now, tears flowing out, the fluid coming out of him not being blood for once.

Izuku had never seen the man look so… vulnerable before, in the month he had known him personally, his shining eyes turning toward him as a small, melancholic smile formed on his lips.

“T- Thank you Young Midoriya.” He manages to choke out, “Whatever it happens, even if this reveals itself as a fool’s errand… I’m proud of you, even just for trying, don’t ever forget that.”

All Might’s words hit Izuku’s like a freight train, a warm feeling spreading over him as he could feel, deep within himself, the quiet hope coming from the man in front of him.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou.”**

Time slows to a crawl as the by now familiar card erupts from Izuku’s chest, glowing in blinding light as it reached its’ third rank.

**“Your bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring you closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana.”**

The card sinks back within him, filling him once again with its warmth as time slowly returns to its proper pace, the voice giving one, last, worrying line before fading away with the card.

**“Thy affinity to the Fool Arcana has strengthened. Thou can now sacrifice a limb in combat in order to prevent a mortal blow from reaching one of your allies.”**

Before Izuku can even begin to contemplate what the devil does that even mean, All Might is back to his usual self, one hand slapping against Izuku’s back, a worrying crack being heard in the process, promptly ignored by the fragile hero.

“S-so…” All Might says, momentarily breaking the moment as he settled himself, his tone turning less melancholic, “All Might Signature Action Figure Collection uh?”

Izuku’s eyes widen in panic at All Might’s words, trying to sputter an excuse out in between nervous chuckles and his violently red cheeks, only earning a jovial laughter out of the man.

The whole image unfortunately still tainted by the blood spewing from his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next logical step of the Persona Games: The Collectible Card Game with abysmal drop rates.
> 
> And yes... It WILL be Pay to Win.
> 
> (Believe it or not this is actually an important plot point in this story. After all, much like in a collectible card game, luck is a prime factor in the life of someone living in the BNHA, their Quirk and Family and Environment being already decided before you could do anything about it).
> 
> Anyway, here's the now upgraded Social Link Chart:
> 
> -
> 
> Fool Arcana (0): All Might, the Number One Hero: Rank III.
> 
> Jester Arcana (0): Remus, the Talking Raven: Rank I.
> 
> ??????? Arcana (??): Anna, the Attendant of the Velvet Room: Rank 0.
> 
> Aeon Arcana (XX): Midoriya Inko, the Hero's Beloved Mother: Rank MAX.
> 
> -
> 
> Still looking for beta reader, but till I find one, as Kirishima would say, I will die in the manliest way possible: Without a beta reader.
> 
> Still not having a release schedule, but at the moment I'm going at a speedy pace since inspiration has, like, filled me to the brim, so there's that.
> 
> Next Up, Izuku meets the bulk of his Social Links and Future Friends as they all move together to their residence for the next 3 years of their lives.
> 
> Believe it or not Comments on this fic are a bloody rush of serotonin ya'll, which makes them greatly appreciated.


	5. Social Link Speed Run: Magician, Lovers, Chariot, Justice and Sun: Rank I.

Spring had come for Midoriya Izuku, and with it, the faithful day that was going to change his life forever.

The day he was gona move out of his family’s home.

His room eerily empty, Izuku is at their front door for what feels like the last time in his life, his hands trembling at his sides, his back heavy with his large, yellow backpack.

“Did you r-remember everything Izuku? Your clothes, y-your pocket tissues, y-your t- figurines?” Midoriya Inko says, tears threatening to escape her large eyes, “Text me as soon as you get there, and please promise me to eat well I know college life is hectic and all but you can’t survive on only takeaway meat bowls Izuku-”

“M-mom, mom, it’s gona be fine, don’t worry…” Izuku says, his own eyes a mirror of his mother’s, “I- I’m gona go now, I don’t want to be late…”

“Izuku!” Before he can leave, his mother stops him one, last time, a small smile on her lips as she takes in her son’s, finally wearing the UA’s uniform like he had always dreamed of.

“You… you look great.” She says, earning a small, content smile from her now crying son “Have fun at university, and please be careful!”

Izuku’s tears are quickly brushed away as he leaves his mother behind with one, last hug, ready to face whatever new trial the future had in store for him.

* * *

Heights Alliance.

A marvel of modern quirk construction built in the span of a week by one of UA’s very own professor, the Pro Hero Cementoss and his construction team. The dorms stand proudly in the University’s campus, a few minutes away from UA’s main building, allowing the students within it an easy and safe trip between the two buildings during workdays.

Izuku gulps, his life’s belonging already up in his assigned dorm room thanks to UA assigned moving crew, tightly gripping at the straps of his bag as he witnesses the large doors of Class 1-A stand proudly in front of him.

“ _This is it_.” The boy thinks, steeling himself as he clutches at the door’s large handles and pulls, _“There’s no turning back now, behind these doors are the people I’m gona spend the next 3 years of my life with…”_

_“Let’s hope they are nice-”_

“REMOVE THAT FOOT FROM THAT TABLE THIS INSTANT YOU SCOUNDREL! THIS IS OUR ESTEEMED LIVING ROOM, A COMMON SPACE FOR US TO USE, AND YOU ARE GREATLY DISRESPECTING BOTH US AND THE CRAFTSMEN WHO PROVIDED US WITH SUCH FACILITIES!”

“AH, AS IF I GIVE A CRAP ABOUT ANY OF THAT SHIT! WHAT HIGH SCHOOL ARE YOU EVEN FROM YOU EXTRA?”

 _“Of course… Of course they had to be here…”_ Izuku thinks, a resigned sigh escaping his lips at the sight of the rude boy from the entrance exam loudly lecturing Izuku’s school bully in the dorms’ large living room space.

The place was massive, almost as big as Izuku’s mom’s apartment, a large, T shaped room, starting a giant flat screen TV surrounded by sofas and coffee-tables, once of which was unfortunately being occupied by one Bakugou Katsuki’s foot right now. Spread away from it were several tables, probably prepared for either eventual study groups or eventual breakfasts, followed closely by a large kitchen space, already occupied by another student slurping on what Izuku assumed was Soba, pointedly ignoring the racket behind him.

A corridor leading toward the communal laundry rooms and baths slightly ruins the T shape, departing from the main kitchen/study area directly to the right, hopefully as separated by sexes as the rooms.

On the far side of the T, right on the wings, there are then two staircases as well as two lifts on each side, each leading to either the male or female side of the dorms, where Izuku’s room was also situated.

The sound argument coming from right in front of him is so loud it’s gona weak the dead, Izuku gulping slowly as he realizes neither of the young men have apparently noticed him yet, Izuku not even having to think about it before instantly starting to sneak away from them.

All he needs to do now, is sneak his way toward the male side of the dorms, throw himself inside one of the lifts as fast as possible, and hastily retreat to his dorm room for the rest of his school life, so to never have any sort of confrontation with any of his classmates, ever.

Unfortunately, all the best laid plans never manage to survive contact with the enemy, as one of the students currently chilling by one of the study tables does indeed spot him, pirouetting back on his feet and stopping Izuku’s mid-tracks, uncomfortably close by the now startled young man, one arm already sliding past Izuku’s shoulder and holding him close.

“Oh oh oh, look who it is!” The young man exclaims with a distinctive French accent, and Izuku instantly recognizes the blonde boy from the entrance exam, the one who had warned him about the nice girl being in danger, “If it isn’t everyone’s favourite knight in sparkling armour! Let me tell you, the way you managed to save that girl during the entrance exam? _Tres Magnifique,_ simply sublime, in fact I feel in a couple more years of practice, you’ll maybe be as shiny and majestic as me one day!”

The Man winks, not exactly at Izuku as much as the nothing right in front of them, as if he’s looking into an invisible camera, and Izuku can’t would probably be a tad weirded out by his mannerism, this coupled by the sudden invasion of his personal space, had absolute terror not taken over the second he feels all sets of eyes in the room, as few as they seem to be, instantly getting to him.

Including the two pairs of eyes he had so desperately tried to avoid that day.

“IT’S YOU!” the rude boy from the entrance exam (And wow Izuku REALLY needs to learn his name at this point he’s starting to feel bad every time he has to refer to him as such) yells, completely forgetting about Bakugou as he dashes toward Izuku, hands chopping wildly around, and Izuku winces at the sight, instantly attempting to shrink himself away from him and the absolutely seething glare coming from Bakugou.

“Yes, indeed is me!” the blonde boy exclaims, fanning himself with a hand as he positions himself in between Izuku and the other man, startling both hero students by doing so, changing from one more flamboyant to the other, “Aoyama Yuga, the most fabulous, majestic, sparkling future pro hero you’ll ever have the pleasure to meet in your life, at your service!”

Izuku blinks, the name ringing some bells in his mind, but not really remembering where he had heard it first…

Only for the other boy to beat him to the punch.

“Aoyama? You are the one who came ninth at the entrance exam!” the bespectacled boy exclaims, eyes widening behind his glasses, before going into a perfect 90° angle bow to both him and Izuku, “I am Iida Tenya, from Somei Private Academy, and I must apologize to the both of you! You probably evinced the true nature of the practical exam from the start, hence why you two wasted so much precious time helping me out as well as those other students. I had severely misjudged you, sorry!”

Izuku frowns in confusion, confusion not exactly helped as the flamboyant young man in front of him, Aoyama as he called himself, seems to simply start basking at the sudden praise via even more poses.

“I didn’t… evince anything really…” Izuku says with a sheepish chuckle, “I mean… people were in danger, and things weren’t going well, what… what was I supposed to do, let people be hurt? I’d rather fail the test than do that-”

“S-so selfless!” The bespectacled boy, Iida, exclaims as he straightens back up from his bow, settling his glasses to a more stable position on his nose, “Truly, the perfect image of the model hero student. SOMEONE in here should learn a thing of two from you.”

“WHY DON’T YOU SAY THAT TO MY FACE YOU FUCKING EXTRA!”

Izuku flinches at the loud yell coming from behind Iida, shrinking slightly in himself as the tell-tale sound of popping, the one who usually announces the arrival of some sort of explosion against him, can be heard in the background.

“Well now, this seems unfair,” Aoyama says with a smirk, instantly getting back at Izuku’s side as he completely ignores Bakugou outraged yells of not being ignored, getting back at Izuku’s side, “You know both of our names now, I feel the least you can do is tell us your name in turn too.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry…” Izuku sheepishly says, blushing slightly at the continued attention, “I- I’m M-Midoriya Izuku…”

“Midoriya Izuku?!” Iida yells the second the words come out of Izuku’s mouth, startling him once more, “You managed to get the maximum score at the written portion of the entrance exam! You arrived second at the entrance exam despite having the lowest Villain Bot score! I had truly misjudged you when I believed you to be a simple good-for-nothing troublemaker back then, I must apologize once more!”

Now, if the few remaining people in the room weren’t listening before, they sure as hell are listening to them now.

The seemingly thinly veiled insult stings a little, but Izuku can already tell by how… earnest the young man seems, and by years spent being the target of actual insults, that he didn’t really mean it as one.

Before he can even properly accept the student’s apology, the common room doors open, heralding in a new arrival in the dorm.

“Soooo big…” the young woman exclaims as she enters the room, slightly disoriented by the room’s décor, “Soooo swanky too…”

Izuku gulps, slowly, instantly recognizing the girl coming in, her eyes scanning around the large room before settling on him, recognition illuminating them as she waves her hands toward Izuku’s general direction, the boy’s face getting as red as a tomato as he sees the girl skipping her way right toward him, earning a knowing chuckle from the flamboyant boy at his side.

“I’d recognize those messy hair everywhere!” she exclaims with a wide smile, “You’re the plain looking guy from the entrance exam, right?!”

Izuku doesn’t even care about the fact he has just been called “plain looking,” gulping slowly at the girl’s words, fortunately saved once again by Aoyama’s sudden intervention.

“Messy hair? Plain looking?” the flamboyant boy exclaims in a hopefully mock-hurt tone, assuming the words were directed at him “You wound me _mon cherie_ , as if there isn’t anyone as charming and as coiffured as me in the whole country!”

“Oh yeah, I remember you too!” The girl exclaims, eyes wide and sparkling, “And you too! You all saved me from that giant robot before he could smash me to bits! It was so cool yet so scary!”

“I… I didn’t do anything!” Iida hastily yells, hands chopping frantically in front of him as he tries to excuse himself, “It was the timely actions of those two future heroes that we’d even managed to get to you in time, I was simply there doing nothing, I do not deserve your praise!”

“As much as it pains _moi_ to admit it, I also didn’t do as much as my fellow knight in sparkling armour over here, _mon cherie_!” Aoyama exclaims with a dramatic sigh, pushing Izuku to the forefront with a shove, making him stumble directly in front of the young woman, “All the praise for your rescue should be bestowed upon him I say.”

Izuku’s blush has now reached ultraviolet levels, not helped in the slightest by how close the young woman was now to him.

“Oh yeah, you were so freaking cool!” She exclaims with a bright smile, almost blinding Izuku with it, “One moment I was about to become a splatter on the ground, the second Zooooms, here you are in that knight armour of yours going at the 0-Pointer, it was like out of a fairy tale!”

“I… I mean- It was n-nothing,” Izuku finally manages to stammer out, attempting to hide himself behind his own hands, incredibly unaccustomed to the continued praise “Y- You also s- saved me three t- times already that d- day, it w- was only fair I-”

“Still, what you did for me was really heroic,” The girl says, cheery smile still present, “I’m Uraraka Ochako by the way, what’s your name?”

Izuku stammers a little because “ _A girl just asked me for my name!_ ” only for something to click within his brain at hearing the girl’s name.

Unfortunately, everyone else in the room seems to connect the dots as fast and as hard as him.

“U- URARAKA OCHACO?!” Iida exclaims in recognition, startling Izuku instantly, making him jump in fright at the loud sound, “You were the one who managed to arrive first during the entrance exam! Did you also evince the true nature of our test before anyone else could?! Truly, I am unworthy of the 5th position among all Top examinees when such giants stand here before me!”

Uraraka seems to grow self-conscious at Iida’s sudden praise, chuckling awkwardly as she starts scratching the back of her neck, Izuku’s blush managing, somehow, to reach shades impossible to detect by the human eye as he realizes that the cute girl he had been talking too till now, the one who had saved him a minimum of three times already, also happened to be the best student in their class, if not in both hero courses.

No matter how cute and nice she was, no matter his own feelings in the matter, if he didn’t stand a chance earlier, he sure as hell doesn’t stand one now…

“Oh, I see how it is…” Aoyama says conspiratorially, a twinkle appearing in his eyes, “Star crossed lovers, enemies divided by fate, the first and second placed in our esteemed academy’s entrance exam, foregoing the bitter rivalry that we would had expected from their roles to begin a tentative friendship, maybe leading into the embers of young love!”

Steam is now spewing out of Izuku, eyes wide and frightened as he looks in between Aoyama, currently T Posing toward him, and Uraraka, her expression unreadable.

“Ah ah ah, very funny,” She chuckles awkwardly at Aoyama’s words, her smile straining a little, “We’ve literally just met, and even then, we’re in the hero course now, I won’t let such silly things such as love or boyfriends distract me from my goal.”

Izuku deflates a little at her words, his head cooling a little as he realizes that yes, she is right. This is also his dream after all, to become a pro hero, as he’s sure it must be the dream of all the other students currently in this room, he doesn’t have time to waste on anything other than that.

“Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t all be friends, can’t we?” She says then, bright smile coming back in full force, cheering up a little, “As I said, we did just meet, but I feel like the four of us are going to become great heroes one day, why not start “teaming up” with each other already?”

Her words seem to reinvigorate the two boys, matching smiles appearing on their lips.

“Of course!” Iida says, hand chops as wild as usual, “How commendable of you Uraraka, truly, you are a shining example of heroism to us all, I’d be unworthy to call you my friend, but if you so desired, I shall gladly accept your offer!”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Aoyama says, adopting a regal, dismissive pose “ _Je suis le_ great and powerful Aoyama Yuga after all, would any of you really feel comfortable being around someone as _magnifique_ as me?”

“Of course we will be!” The hurricane that was Uraraka Ochako exclaims, fist raised in the air, completely throwing the flamboyant blonde boy out of whack, “You went and searched for help for me when someone else would have just ran away, that’s enough on my book to make us friends!”

Aoyama gives her one, long look, his face fixed into a smirking mask, before huffing slightly to himself, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

“Oh well, if _mademoiselle_ is so sure, I guess I’ll deign you all with my wonderful presence,” He says with a casual shrug, before winking once again toward literally nothing, “Try not to get too blinded by my radiance.”

That earns a small laughter from Uraraka and a grunt from Iida, already descending into another lecture about manners and humility, Izuku only half listening to it as he stares at the scene playing in front of him.

“ _F-friends…”_ Izuku says, eyes watering only a little, “ _So this is what it feels like…_ ”

Times slows to a crawl, Izuku not even blinking at it this time, right as three different cards appear in front of him, spinning languidly in front of him, one in front of each of his new…

Friends.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou.”**

The voice bellows, each card stopping in front of him, revealing three different images, a VI, a VIII and a IXX under them, one featuring a black heart strangled by a large snake, the other scales, one side with a feather on it, the other with a bag of coins, balanced perfectly, and the last one featuring 10 large, shining orbs, their rays illuminating the barren field below, a lone, small figure aiming a bow at the sky.

**“Thou have forged three new bonds… They shall bring thou closer to thy dreams.”**

The cards return spinning, right as they sink back onto him, one after the other, Izuku’s eyes growing wider at the faint, almost inexistent feeling of warmth each card brought with it.

All still so weak… Yet each ready to grow into something more.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Lovers, Justice and Sun Arcanas.”**

As the voices stops its chanting, so does time crawl back to its proper pace, everyone seemingly unaware of what had just happened.

“Well, I’d love to stay more but I have to unpack!” Uraraka says with a cheery smile, “See ya’ll at dinner!”

Izuku bristles a little at Uraraka’s sudden accent, a slight blush covering her cheeks even as she skips her way toward the female side of the dorms, Izuku following soon after before anyone else could stop him, heading toward his own room to do his own unpacking.

And defiantly ignoring the glare that was consistently getting from right behind him as he did so.

* * *

The room furbishing and subsequent call to his mom took more than Izuku expected, having to set up both the veritable library of Notebooks he had accumulated over the years as well as all the All Might’s merch in his possession in just the right way he wouldn’t wake up the next morning and panic at the sight of an unfamiliar room.

Still, it’s been a couple hours, and a tired Izuku surreptitiously peeks his head out of his door, in the empty corridor of his room on the second floor of their dorms, before tentatively taking a step outside.

He could be spending the rest of his day in his room, but that’d mean missing in on opportunities of spending time with his new… friends, and while Izuku never really minded spending time alone, at least back when the alternative was either that or getting trashed by someone, he really didn’t feel like ditching the tentative new bonds he had just made, or spend his first night at UA starving that is...

Also, there was strength in numbers, and he needed to be as strong as possible right now. Bakugou would never try anything with so many witnesses around, or at least that’s what Izuku hoped. All he needed to do, was get down to the common room, meet back with Uraraka or Iida or Aoyama, and stick with them for all dinner before making a quick retreat back to his room.

Yes, as long as there were no unexpected encounters, Izuku could see no fault in his dastardly, perfect plan.

“Oh hey it’s you,” a monotone voice says from right behind him, startling Izuku as he jumps high in the air, turning back toward the source, a hand to his chest as he could still feel his heart thundering in his chest.

Purple hair and unimpressed stare are what await Izuku as he looks back at the other student, the door right beside Izuku’s slightly ajar, implying he had just come out of it.

“Jumpy today aren’t you,” The young man says as he raises an eyebrow, dark bags under his eyes stretching a little at the motion, “Expected something a bit braver from the simp who decided to throw himself at a giant robot monster and almost die in the process.”

“S- Simp?!” Izuku squeaks out, startled and feeling like he should be slightly offended by the other young man’s words, “A- And how do you-”

“Know? About the frankly stupidly suicidal stunt you pulled. Man, everyone who was in that city knows, we all saw you run at that thing, the few of us that weren’t trying to kill each other couldn’t stop talking about it.” The young man says with a bored shrug of his shoulder, “And all for what? I bet you didn’t even know about the rescue points. Hell, I didn’t even know about the rescue points, otherwise I would have tried breaking even more annoying fights with my quirk, yet here you are, throwing yourself into the maw of death, and for what? Some _girl_?”

“I- I saw someone in danger and ran to her help as soon as I could!” Izuku instantly gets defensive, eyes hardening just a tiny fraction, “That would make me a hero, not a… Simp, whatever the heck that means…”

“I mean, duh,” The young man says with a bored shrug, “But that also makes you a Simp in my book. I mean, how would you call a dumbass that almost throws his life away just to get himself between some random girl he literally just met and a controlled, fake threat from a university entrance exam? You’re a capital S Simp, plain and simple.”

Izuku blisters at the words, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks.

“I am… I am not a Simp…” Izuku says, pouting slightly as he looks dejectedly at his feet, cheeks still a bit red, “I would have done the same even if it was you the one about to get smashed.”

Izuku hears a loud gulp coming from the other’s man direction, looking up only to find him sporting his own, slight blush, instantly covered up by his hand as he emits something between a snort and a cough.

“Be- be that as it may,” The other man hastily changes subject, “It seems you were right about one thing at least, and that’s me acing the entrance exam, without the help of anyone but myself. Wish I could say the same about you…”

Izuku sputters at the other man’s words, instantly getting even more defensive, “Excuse me? I’ll… I’ll let you know that I worked hard to get here! In fact, I even managed to score-”

“Second on the entrance exam.” The other young man repeats with a yawn, “Yeah, I heard the megaphone in human form in the living room when you got in, I’m pretty sure they heard him all the way from the business department dorms for how loud he was, and guess what? I. don’t. care.”

Izuku is at a loss for words, the sudden confrontation doing wonders for his already frayed nerves as he nervously looks around for an out, finding none.

“I can already see it, you and that other girl, silver spoons jammed firmly into your mouths, having the school at your feet for being the first and second scored among all hero student.” The other teen spits angrily, eyes taking in a weird sheen under the now flickering light of the corridor, “You make me sick, getting all proud and mighty because society says the power you were born with was the correct one, because you got handled a good hand rather than the absolute shit most other people got and you can now live a free and easy life away as a Pro Hero reaping in fame, glory and government money.”

“That’s… that’s not true!” Izuku stammers out, the sudden attack on his dream stinging him deep, “I don’t want to be a hero for that!”

“I don’t care what the fuck do you want.” The other teen grits his teeth, and now Izuku knows that the light isn’t playing tricks on him because the teen’s eyes really are starting to glow with a weird, yellowish gleam, “Look at you, with your big, fancy quirk doing all the work for you. You did nothing. You simply let that ghost knight of yours do all the work and sit back and reap on the reward!” The young man continues with a sneer, “God, I bet you were everyone’s favourite student back in high school, the big future hero with the popular powers that kept having his stupid quirk shove people into lockers or, or engraving slurs on the other kids with the _evil_ and _useless_ quirks!”

Izuku sucks his breath in, eyes going wide as something inside his mind _snaps_.

“I…” Izuku manages to stammer out, the other boy’s words still hitting him like a mallet to the gut, “I was the one who usually had his desk disfigured by mean insults actually.”

It’s barely a whisper, a rush of air coming out of Izuku’s mouth, some tension he never knew he had escaping his shoulders, his breath getting a little bit easier as he finally admits it out loud.

This causes, somehow, for the other student to stop, his glare, unfocused as it was, as if he wasn’t ranting at him as much as what he thought Izuku represented, softening by the smallest margin, eyes blinking as the golden sheen fades away.

“Oh?”

It’s another rush of wind, this time coming out of the other teen, all fight leaving his body in an instant as he blinks a couple more times, before staring back sheepishly at Izuku, an awkward silence filling the corridor.

Izuku’s brain tries to find a topic, and topic to break the awkward silence, and the only way he can think of doing so, is by oversharing his life story to effectively a stranger.

“You… You see, I was… I was always considered Quirkless,” the word actually causes the other boy to catch his breath, eyes widening slightly, “Except I really wasn’t apparently? Because I have this Quirk, which is a Familiar Quirk like you saw, and it, like… It only fully manifested less then a year before I could even try at the entrance exam, so back then at school I was just the weird, Quirkless kid who wanted to be a hero, so everyone had it out against me for it, even the teachers never did nothing to stop it, so… If that’s what happened to you, like… people bullying you for who you are? I get it. I know you probably think I don’t, but I get it, just… just don’t assume everyone you meet had it easy, because I’m sure everyone here had to work long and hard to pass that exam, not just you or me!”

The other teen swallows, slowly, as Izuku catches his breath back from the long-winded speech.

“Ah.” He finally says, scratching the back of his neck a little, “Well, this… this isn’t going exactly as I planned.”

“Uh?” Izuku genially says with a confused brow “Why, how did you plan this to go?”

“Well… I was expecting you to be some sort of… secret super-chad in disguise or something who had had his life handed to him on a silver platter and never had to do anything to earn it, and now you’re telling me you used to have it way worse than me, and that I am actually the bad guy all along,” he gives out one, bitter chuckle at his own words, “God I’m so pathetic, I’ve become like those douchebags who told me I could never become a hero…”

“I’m not saying that,” Izuku hastily says, hands up and shaking side to side, “And they were wrong when they said that, whoever they were! What I’m just saying is that… is that we all basically just met, and we still have 3 more years to know each other better, I don’t see any reason why we should all belittle each other from the start, especially not when we can all become friends instead.”

“Friends?” The other boy says in a weird tone, as if the word tasted strange in his mouth, “I never had friends…”

“Well, I never had friends… real friends till today either,” Izuku says with a small, tentative smile, “I can be your first friend if you like?”

Now, that causes the other teen’s breath to catch, something… unreadable passing through his eyes as a faint, almost imperceptible blush shows up upon his cheeks.

“So, how about we start back from the start?” Izuku says, suddenly on a roll, because if there is one thing that could utterly destroy his social awkwardness and shyness toward meeting new people, the only thing that could conquer his own fear of being hurt by someone he had just met…

Was seeing someone else hurting.

“So, my name is Midoriya Izuku,” Izuku says with a small smile, offering his hand to him, “What’s your name?”

The other teen takes a long look at Izuku’s offered hand, Izuku’s sweat glands suddenly working overtime as he starts overthinking everything, wondering if perhaps he had been too forward with the other teen…

“You’re gona hate me.” The other teen says, still staring at the offered hand, “You’ll gona learn about my Quirk, and then you’ll gona hate me, or I’m gona do something to make you hate me, to push you away before you can really hurt me, and even than-”

“Hate you for your quirk?” Izuku says, the words tasting foul in his mouth, as if he could ever hate someone for something as amazing as Quirks.

He makes a snap decision.

“Well, if you are so sure, try me then.” Izuku says, causing the other teen’s breath to catch in his throat, “What’s your Quirk?”

The other teen looks at him, then to his still offered hand, and then closes his eyes, taking one, deep breath, before talking, voice firm and monotone.

“I have a Quirk called Brainwashing.” He says what Izuku feels must be some sort of practiced speech at this point, “I can… I can ask people questions, and if they answer me I can… I can control their minds for a while, I can tell them to do whatever I want for as long as they don’t get hurt… That is, that’s’ my Quirk.”

The teen winces at his own words, bracing himself for rejection and scorn, all feelings he had been far too familiar all his life…

Only to be met by… vibrating?

“Oh my god that’s so awesome!” Izuku yells, genuinely excited, and the other young man can only open his eyes in shock at Izuku’s words.

“You… you don’t think it’s a… Evil Quirk?”

“What? Of course not! You can do so much good with it!” Izuku yells, producing from… somewhere a new notebook for the occasion as he started annotating all those new info on it, “Think of all the hostage situations you can stop with a simple word, or all the civilians you’d be able to calm down and save from dangerous scenarios! Yeah, flashy and combat based quirks are all well and good, but heroism isn’t about that in the end, heroism is all about saving people after all!”

“And even then, even in a combat situation, your Quirk is nothing to scoff at!” Izuku continues, now on a roll as his Hyperfixation has been unleashed on the unsuspecting teen, “Yeah, you got unlucky since our practical exam was based on fighting robot, and got saved by the slight overhaul it had to go through, but in an actual, hero vs villain scenario, being able to rob your opponent of their own free will is huge! You’d be able to finish everyone off without even a scratch or turn villain teams against one another! Hell, what about other uses of your power? Can you order someone to, like, finish studying a book chapter and assimilate all information within it in one hour? Or what about more unconventional uses for it, like-”

The other teen blink at the sudden display in front of him, before a strangled laugh escapes his mouth, a sound that sounded weird and wrong coming out of the other teen, startling Izuku out of his infodump.

“Oh boy…” The other student says after a while, only to snicker at a now bashful Izuku, “I… I never met someone so excited and supportive about someone else’s quirk, let alone mine… You really are weird you know that, right?”

Izuku blushes a little at the thinly veiled insult, only to startled slightly as the other teen suddenly offers his hand at him.

“Fine, I’ll give this whole… friends thing a shot.” The other teen says with a smirk, “I’m Shinso Hitoshi by the way, your room neighbour. I hope we won’t get too sick of each other in the coming years.”

Izuku smiles at the other teen, eagerly getting at the offered hand and shaking it, only for time to slow back into a crawl once again, a spinning card appearing right between them.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

The card displayed a large I beneath the art, apparently depicting a robed man, a staff in one hand, a sack of coins in the other, a table in front of him displaying various knick-knacks of various kinds, Izuku barely registering the voice’s usual words as a new Bond was forged.

**“Thou have forged a new Bond… It shall bring you closer to your dreams…”**

The voice begins to fade as the card sinks within Izuku’s chest, a faint, warm feeling pervading him in the process as time is ready to spring back into the proper pace.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Magician Arcana…”**

Time crawls back into the proper pace, Izuku breaking his and Shinso’s handshake after a few more second, neither teen really accustomed with how long it should really go, before he starts sheepishly scratching at the back of his neck.

“W-well, it’s getting kind of late, and we need to still eat dinner…” Izuku begins saying, stammering a little in the process, “Want- Want to head downstairs? We still need to meet all the other students after all…”

Shinso winces a little at the mention of other people, but a small smirk places itself on his lips still.

“Ah, fine, whatever, as if I care…” He says with an overly drawn bored monotone as he begins leaving “But you are the one making me dinner, you still owe me for saving you during the entrance exam.”

“What- I thought we were even back then?!” Izuku stammers out, standing dumbly in the alleyway before realizing he was about to be left alone and hastily catching up to his new friend.

“As a future hero, I consciously decided not to control your mind and let you lose the exam on purpose back then,” Shinso says, causing Izuku to sputter and startle at his words, “Which means you owe me a dinner since I oh so gracefully saved you from myself.”

Izuku can’t stop the outraged gasp escaping his mouth, almost missing the subtle smirk appearing on the other teen’s mouth.

* * *

Descending with Shinso to the ground floor, Izuku was informed by a still very loud and very mechanical Iida that no one else had yet arrived at the dorms even despite the hour/hour and a half Midoriya had spent unpacking.

Now in the Dorms were, therefore, Aoyama, Bakugou, Iida, Uraraka and Shinso, as well as the other young man eating Soba at the kitchen counter, and, apparently, an invisible girl.

Izuku doesn’t really understand how he managed to miss a set of literal walking clothes the first time he had arrived in the living room really.

With Uraraka still up in her room, probably unpacking, and Shinso demanding his reward meal this instant, Izuku could do nothing but get behind the kitchen counter and start making dinner for himself and his new… friend, trying to at least be polite with the new people around.

The young man eating soba had presented himself as Todoroki Shoto the second Izuku had tried to strike a somewhat awkward conversation with him, the sudden rush of self confidence over his already 4 struck friendships in a single days clouding his judgement, said self-confidence instantly plummeting to the ground as soon as Todoroki, without even asking for Midoriya’s name back (Not that there weren’t many possibilities he didn’t know it at this point given how enthusiastically had Iida bellowed him to everyone in the room), simply got up and left without another word, completely ignoring the lot of them.

The invisible girl is one Hagakure Toru, seemingly way more polite than the Todoroki guy as she strikes a conversation with him over, obviously, her quirk. She seems nice, but Izuku doesn’t feel anything… click yet, no cards nor time slowing to a crawl now, a simple conversation over Quirks and uses thereof.

Izuku isn’t discouraged, however. 4 Links in a day seem already like an accomplishment enough for him, and he still had 3 long years to better know all his new classmates.

Hell, he doesn’t even know why he’s doing this really, maybe because a disembodied voice tells him his personas get “stronger” or something every new bond he gets, or maybe because he gets… this rush inside of him, every time he feels the warm feeling of the bond he forges with the people around him, he himself doesn’t know...

Still, as soon as he finished to prepare Shinso’s portion of Curry, with a dish right for himself and a complimentary one for Hagakure for answering to his questions, Uraraka has the bright idea to descend from her side of the dorms, seemingly attracted by the siren song of food.

“Mmmmm, is that curry?” Uraraka says, almost drooling as she zeroes on Izuku, “it smells delicious, can I have some?”

“S-sure!” Izuku stammers out, jitters overtaking him as he passes her his own dish, before getting back at making more curry for himself.

“Simp.” Shinso coughs under his breath, thankfully unheard by Uraraka as she simply inhales Izuku’s whole plate, as if she hadn’t eaten food in years.

“S-so… do you like it?” Izuku asks, suddenly bashful, his reddened face thankfully hidden as he gives his back to his new friends, working on the kitchenette behind the counter.

“Like it? God, I love this curry so much I’m gona marry it!” Uraraka can’t help but… Izuku doesn’t want to say moan, because his mother raised a proper gentleman and this was his new good friend who he respected and admired just now, “What’s your secret, do you, like, also have a cooking quirk or something? Because this is divine, is like heaven on my tastebuds!”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly at her words, still concentrating on the curry in front of him, “B- Back in high school, me and My mom bought a series of cooking books from _Tanaka’s Amazing Commodities_ , I wanted to… I wanted to impress my classmates with my cooking and make new friends at school with some cool Bentos…”

“Oh, and how did that go?” Uraraka says, and Izuku, even with his back to her, can almost see the radiant, innocent smile shining out of her, even as he gulps slowly the sudden… something that was chocking at him, deep within his throat, “With cooking like this, you must have been very popular back then!”

As much as he can feel Shinso stopping mid bite and staring right at Izuku’s back, waiting for his reaction, Izuku still steels himself, a deep breath entering his lungs at Uraraka’s innocent question.

“The first time I tried offering a bento to someone, he just poured it all over my head and demanded I thanked him for it,” Izuku says in a rush after what feels is an eternity, earning a sudden gasp from his new friends, his hands trembling slightly “Didn’t… Didn’t try it again after that…”

“I… I didn’t realize…” Uraraka says, voice suddenly thick with emotion, “God, I’m so sorry, that must have been awful!”

“Well, I think this curry is delicious,” Shinso jumps in, continuing to eat Izuku’s curry with renewed gusto, “And that those people were idiots for wasting it, their loss, not yours.”

“Oh, I completely agree with you,” Uraraka instantly interjects, completely nonplussed over the sudden addition to the conversation, a fire deep in her eyes, “Those jerks, if I had one of them in front of me right here, right now, I swear I’d… I’d just zero gravity them all the way to Pluto!”

“Damn, that beats my plan since it already takes care of the bastards’ bodies…” Shinso mutters with a monotone drawl, earning a devious smile and a thumbs up by a still fired up Uraraka, as well as a startled cough from Hagakure, choking on her food right as she finds herself right in between the two matching killing intents at her sides.

Izuku is suddenly very glad and very aware that that same bully who did, in fact, pour that Bento on his head, is currently holed up in his own room, thankfully nowhere near neither him nor his apparently homicidal new friends.

“Oh oh oh, is that curry I smell?” Aoyama chirps in as he descends to the ground floor alongside Iida, seemingly defusing the situation by grabbing everyone’s attention to himself “I hope you’d taken into account _moi_ when you were preparing it Midoriya, because if that smells as good as it tastes-”

“Oh, it does, it sure does!” Uraraka interjects, her plate already finished, “In fact, can I have a second serving please? Better yet, can you, like, cook for us forever!”

Izuku’s face reddens at the praise, a smile splitting his face because, damn, someone is actually eating his food, before he turns back toward the kitchen counter and gets back and preparing even more curry.

“Uraraka!” Iida bellows, hands already chopping wildly around “This is our first day in these sacred dorms, we cannot demand Midoriya over there to take on the bulk of our dinners! We should start a simple schedule over who gets kitchen duty the various days of the week or, better yet, leave each and eery one of us with the task of cooking for ourselves!”

“I… I don’t mind cooking Iida,” Izuku says, his blush only growing redder because _“Holy shit someone other than my mom is worried about my wellbeing!”_

“I… I like being needed.”

“W-well, that doesn’t mean you should let other-” Before he can even continue with his rant, the doors opening widely to finally reveal other members of class 1-A.

“Oh boy, is that Curry I smell?!” an absolutely ripped even beneath his travel clothing man with red, spiky hair yells as soon as he sets foot in the dorms, followed soon after by a pink skinned girl with horns, “God, that smells so manly, can I have a bite of that?!”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly at the odd compliment, before turning back to the kitchen counter, currently contemplating the possibility of having to make 19 new dishes of curry.

_“I’m gona need a bigger pot.”_

* * *

Izuku didn’t start any new social links that night, even as he serves most of his new classmates some of his special curry, the dishes thankfully done by a sheepish Shinso, strong-armed into it by Iida, who had apparently decided to blame him for Izuku’s sudden indentured servitude, right the second the purple haired man had mentioned how the only reason why Izuku had started cooking something in the first place was because he had asked him first.

Still, Izuku couldn’t help but feel… somewhat fulfilled, as he saw the ecstatic smiles of his new classmates as they inhaled their own portion of food, feeling as if, even if no social link had struck, at least he had gotten somewhat closer to his new classmates, closer than he ever felt with someone in any of his schools.

Or at least, with the classmates who did actually eat his curry.

Now however, it’s night-time, everyone sated and back in their rooms, and Izuku, a modicum of eyebags still under his eyes, is currently sitting at his new desk, christening it as he writes an approximation of an analysis for all his new classmates on one of his new notebooks.

As he fills out Hagakure’s entrance, currently the biggest due to her own eagerness to discuss herself with someone, he hears a weird, sinister sound coming from his window, thumping as hard as his beating heart, causing the young man to freeze at the sound.

“Nevermore bitch, let me in.”

Izuku’s nerves inflate instantly as he opens back the window, letting Remus the talking Raven into his room.

“What are you doing here?” Izuku whisper-shouts, “We are UA, the most secure place on earth, what the heck are you doing here?! What if one of the teachers saw you, what if they thought you were my pet?! Oh my god can we even keep pets in here?!”

“Jeez, calm down kid, I know these skies well enough, no one saw me get in here” The corvid simply says, jumping down on Izuku’s desk from his windowsill and jumps around, “Nice room by the way, just as stalker shrine as I remember it to be.”

Izuku sputters indignantly at the Raven’s insinuations, his plight completely ignored by both Remus and the countless All Might figurines whose empty stares watch him sleep every night.

“Anyway, congrats kid, we are moving in the second part of the training, and we are doing it right now” Remus says with a suspiciously cheery tone, big, black eyes staring up at Izuku, “So, put on something decent and follow me, we are off to see the wizard, whatever you like it or not.”

* * *

Izuku… doesn’t remember the blue door being there, right inside their dorms’ living room, from when he was there that afternoon.

Still, he guesses the whole day had been hectic already, so no one was really gona fault him for missing the weird décor.

“How the hell did you miss this thing?” Remus sneers, definitely faulting him for missing the weird décor despite his hectic day, “It’s a closed door standing in the middle of the damn room?! Didn’t you wonder what the hell this thing was doing here, or why was no one commenting on it?”

“Listen, I was too busy either moving in my room or preparing my classmates dinner tonight, I think I wouldn’t have notice if All Might and Endeavour were right in front of me French kissing today even if I tried!” Izuku whisper shouts, suddenly cranky for the lack of sleep and, well, the real possibility of getting caught out of curfew not even the first day of university and getting expelled for that, “What’s this thing for anyway?”

“This, Midoriya, is the place where the magic happens,” The crow eagerly caws, now perched atop the weird door to nothing, “Go on, open it with your key, we don’t have all night pal.”

“Key?” Izuku says, brows furrowing a little, “What key?”

As if on cue, something inside Izuku’s pocket, something that had always been there, even now in his ratty shorts and a old white shirt with SHIRT written on it, starts glowing faintly, a purple, bright light coming out of it, right as the door to nothing unlocks with a loud snap, as memories of Izuku’s dreams come rushing back into him.

He stumbles, the mental assault suddenly too much, before shaking his head, looking back at the now ajar door, _something_ shining from behind it.

And instantly running back up to his room.

“Kid? Kid where the hell are you going?!” The raven caws loudly, apparently not caring about anything or anyone hearing him.

“I forgot to bring something,” Izuku whisper shouts to the raven, “I’ll be right back!”

Izuku gets hastily back to his room, trying to make as little sound as possible, rummaging within his library, only to find exactly what he was looking for.

He turns once again toward the door, only to stop in his tracks, his gaze falling on his desk, where the notebook was still left open, a small, blue butterfly, apparently entering the room from the window he had left open for Remus, gently sitting on it.

A strange, overwhelming sense of familiarity overcome Izuku at the sight, right as he tentatively made its way to it, the butterfly seemingly waiting for him as he almost mechanically offers his hand to it, the butterfly hopping onto It, each flap of her wings a world of possibilities.

Izuku blinks, once, as the Butterfly simply… exists, right before flying back up from his finger, now placing itself on top of one of Izuku’s special edition All Might’s figurines, Izuku transfixed with its sight.

A caw loud enough to wake the dead startle Izuku, instantly shaking his head, remembering what he needed to do, as he descended back in the ground floor of his dorm room, ready to explore the mysterious room from his dream, now that he is finally able to remember about it.

Completely ignoring as the blue butterfly simply remaining there, on top of the All Might’s figurine, staring intently at him as he goes.

* * *

The Velvet Room is exactly how he remembers it from his dreams.

Now that he can remember it that is.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room.” The long nosed man, Igor, Izuku now finally remembers, greets him with a pleased smile, sitting at his table like nothing was wrong in the world, and Izuku hadn’t just barged in, in the middle of the night, inside a place he had only ever seen in his dreams, followed by one of the few talking crows in existence.

“Sup Kiddo!” Anna says from her seat in the sofa, patting the spot right next to her with a gloved hand, “Glad to finally see you in the flesh, did you bri- What the hell is that bastard doing here?”

The question, Anna’s cheery demeanour instantly turning sour as her eyes spot Remus perched on top of Izuku’s shoulder, claws gripping hard at his shoulder.

“Love you too Nan, how’s the wife and kids?” The raven drawls, hopping off his makeshift’s perk and flying around the room, “Oi, Is my old support item still here? The kid needs all the help he can- Ah, here it is!”

Suddenly, a large, blueish rectangular… thing rises from the ground beside Anna’s large sofa, right beside Izuku’s usual’s spot, Remus perching right on top of it, tentatively pecking at it.

“You two know each other?” Izuku says, eyes widening as he realizes he can finally talk in there, hands already ready to take on notes with each new question coming from him.

“Of course we know each other right Nan? I taught her everything she knows about Personas and then some,” The crow says as he keeps on pecking on the thing, metallic clanks coming out of it with each Peck as Izuku makes his way to his spot on the sofa, trying to maintain as much distance to a suddenly pouty Anna as possible.

“Yeah, more like you just stood there demanding all my hard-earned money and left all the real work to poor Sora-” Anna’s mouth snaps shut, a faint grow escaping from her lips as she glares back up at the raven, “And you can stop fiddling with that fossil, it stopped working decades ago…”

“Maybe it stopped working for you, you Hag,” The crow says, before giving one, final peck to the top of the rectangular device, “This is an antique my gal, from back in my days, when we used to build shit made to last, not this weak ass shit from today that breaks the second it’s squeezed a bit too tightly by a strengthening Quirk… and done!”

Their conversation completely going over Izuku’s head, the poor boy can’t help but stare as the rectangular device seemingly comes to life, a bright, purple glow coming out of it, seemingly blinding Izuku as it turns into a large, crow shaped…

Gacha Machine?

“Here it is!” Remus says with a satisfied caw, “” The Devil’s Painter’s Gacha Game of Persona!” That’s how you’re gona get some REAL personas to later fuse with the boss here, we can’t expect Shadows to do all the work after all, especially with the insane inflation drop rates we have gotten over the years.”

Izuku’s eyes widen, myriad of questions assaulting his mind at the crow’s words.

“Do not worry, all answers will be given in due time,” Igor, Izuku suddenly remembering he was here at all, says with a enigmatic smirk, “But first, before any question can be truly answered, I feel like my… Assistant has a question herself to ask you, does she not?”

Anna flinches slightly at the sudden attention, a small, strained smile appearing on her lips, right as Izuku produces the item she had “requested” him to get her.

“All Might’s Unofficial Autobiography,” Izuku says with a cheerful smile, “I have another copy back in my room anyway from the collector edition, autographed and all, so it wasn’t that difficult to get one for you.”

“Ah, thanks kiddo!” Anna say with a smirk, “Finally, something to do while I’m not working! Now, how am I gona reward you…”

She snaps her fingers, a pleased smile appearing on her lips.

“Oh I know,” she says, throwing a foul look at the raven right on Izuku’s left, still perched on his device, “How about I give you a discount on MY services every time you help me out with something? Want to become Anna’s cute little delivery boy? You give me something, I give you _something_ , the… usual jazz?”

Izuku gulps, not really understanding the extent of the woman’s words, before shaking his head from side to side to steel himself.

“I... I mean, yeah?” Izuku sheepishly concedes, “If you want anything else just ask and I’ll help you out?”

“Awwww, really?” She says, her smirk turning feral, “Ah, I feel this will be the start of a beautiful… relationship, don’t you think?”

Time slows to a crawl… or at least it should be slowed down to a crawl, even if everyone else seems to be moving normally around the room, and almost drowning out Izuku’s disembodied voice.

“Ugh, seriously?” Remus complains with a tired ugh, “He could be your great grandson you hag.”

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou...”**

“Oh come on, you know Evil MILFs are a staple for us at this point, this way we have way less chances of him… fooling around with one of his hot teachers at least” Anna says, completely ignoring the spinning card standing between a very confused Izuku and herself, a large VII sitting beneath it, revealing the image of a large roman chariot, attached to nothing and driven by nothing, and yet still competing on equal footing against a large, muscled female athlete dressed as an amazon.

**“Thou have forged a new bond; it shall bring thou closer to your dreams…”**

“Ah, good luck with that, I’ve seen the teachers’ files one of his professors is a freaking Dominatrix, this kid is screwed!” The crow caws loudly, instantly devolving into a fit of almost hysterical laughter, “This kid is _screwed_!”

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Chariot Arcana.”**

Izuku’s mind is instantly filled with even more questions now, as the crow and the attendant kept on bickering with each other, turning toward the only other seemingly coherent person currently in this room with him.

“Do not worry dear guest,” Igor says, valiantly ignoring everything happening all around him as he gave Izuku one last, knowing look, “This is but another Sunday in the Velvet Room. You tend to get used to it, after… seven, eight generations of this in a row.”

“Now, please, tell me what does your inquisitive mind desires to know? I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities.”

Izuku's mind skids to a halt, myriad of questions assaulting him all at once until, finally...

He picks the first question that comes to his mind, the one he had wanted to ask ever since the day of the Sludge Villain.

"Why Me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOCIAL LINKS RECAP:
> 
> Fool Arcana (0): All Might, the Number One Hero: Rank III
> 
> Jester Arcana (0): Remus, the Talking Raven: Rank I
> 
> Magician Arcana (I): Shinso, the Room Neighbor: Rank I
> 
> Lovers Arcana (VI): Uraraka, the Top Ranked at the Entrance Exam: Rank I
> 
> Chariot Arcana (VII): Anna, the Attendant of the Velvet Room: Rank I
> 
> Justice Arcana (VIII): Iida, the Strict but Kind Student: Rank I
> 
> Sun Arcana (IXX): Aoyama, the Twinkling Sparkle: Rank I
> 
> Aeon Arcana (XX): Midoriya Inko, the Hero's Beloved Mother: Rank MAX.
> 
> SOCIAL STATS RECAP:
> 
> Academics/Intelligence/Knowledge: 5/5
> 
> Understanding/Kindness: 5/5
> 
> Diligence/Proficiency: 3/5
> 
> Expression/Charm: 1/5
> 
> Courage/Guts: 1/5
> 
> Izuku's Personas Recap:
> 
> Quixote (LV ??) (???), Fool Arcana
> 
> Pixie (LV ??) (P5), Lovers Arcana
> 
> Pixie (LV 2) (P4), Magician Arcana


	6. Jester Arcana: Rank II; Story Event: Deku V Kacchan.

“Why You?” Igor repeats with a pensive hum, large, bloodshot eyes staring straight into Izuku, hands clasped beneath his impossibly large nose.

Izuku gulps, slowly, steeling himself for whatever answer that he’s about to receive, for whatever reason he was going to hear, for why, in the end, he was the one having these… Personas, this Quirk, rather than someone else, someone who maybe even already had a cool and powerful Quirk, or who deserved more than him, or who had always worked harder than him.

“Why not?”

Izuku almost falls off the couch.

“Wha-” Izuku sputters, eyes wide, tone incredulous, “What kind of stupid answer is that?!”

“Oh, it might be… stupid, as you say, but it is the right answer here,” Igor says with a pleased, enigmatic smile, “After all, reality is all but a coin toss. What power you were born with, what people you met, what support you received, can you honestly tell me that everything, in this world, isn’t governed by Luck? By Chance and Fortune? Even this power of yours, One for All, was only obtained because you happened to be at the right place, at the right time, and was passed down onto everyone it its line, because they too happened to be in the right place at the right time…

“Why should Personas be any different?”

“So… That’s all I am?” Izuku asks, suddenly shrinking into himself, an… inexplicable sadness washing all over him, “You toss a coin, and it lands right on its edge? That’s what I am to you?”

“And how would that make you any lesser than any of the so-called heroes of this world?” Igor shoots back with his small, enigmatic smirk, Izuku’s breath catching in his throat, “No, I’d say this makes you better, dear guest. This power might not be the one you’ve born with yes, and you might not have come by it by normal means, but you were tested afterwards, and you were found worthy, this should be proof enough that you were not, as you said, the result of a simple coin toss, by a effective and conscious decision on your part.”

“And even then, even if that was the case, it wasn’t me the one who… tossed your coin, as per se,” Igor says with a pleased drawl, “We have always answered to a superior authority here after all, both me and my oh so troublesome assistants, and we **all** best be remembering that.”

Igor gives the other occupants of the Velvet Room a long look, the two having finally calmed down from their bickering and, very pointedly, tried their hardest to look as inconspicuous as possible under the man’s glare.

“S- so, wait…” Izuku says, the pit in his stomach shrinking slightly, “You’ve always knew about this place Remus?”

“Duh, of course I did!” The Raven says with a tired drawl, “How do you think I knew about what to do and don’t when it came to Personas? I’ve trained each new generation of Wildcards, see them all grow up and prosper, find their own successors, their own allies, growing stronger and better since the days of… the days of…”

The crow instantly grows sombre at his own words, quieting instantly, a soft hum escaping its beak, and Izuku knows better than to pry.

“You… you keep saying that word…” He says instead, trying to switch back to safer topics, “Wildcard. What… what do you mean by that?”

“Oh, but a wildcard, dear guest, is what you are.” Igor interjects, Izuku’s attention instantly pulled back to him, “Zero, Nothing, an empty glass, however ready to be filled with everything, ready to grow and turn into infinite possibilities, that’s what a Wildcard is, someone who can hold, who can adapt himself to more than one Persona, and who can let them prosper within their very selves.”

“What the Boss said,” Anna interjects with a grin, “Normally, Persona Users can only hold one persona in the entirety of their life, but you? You are a special case. You can pluck personas from the collective consciousness, embodied within it by the symbols and the creatures of myths and legends, of fiction and fantasy, and tame them to your will. Those… general personas, while not as personal as the Persona that had came out of your very being, will however serve you faithfully as long as you have managed to earn their trust.”

“Or you manage to beat the shit out of them,” The crow shoots back, seemingly out of his previous funk, “But you should have already understood that, right? After all, you already have gained two new personas.”

“I mean…” Izuku stammers out, eyes widening as the three cards within him suddenly appearing in front of Anna, right as she opened her large, leather-bound book and had them touch it, empty pages filling with dark scribbles, before disappearing back into a flash of blue flame, probably back into Izuku “I mean… yeah, but I still don’t understand how did that happen? Were… were those monsters at the entrance exam also part of my Quirk?”

“Mmmmm, yes and no kiddo…” Anna says with a smirk, “Those creatures you met at the entrance exam? They were Shadows. They are stragglers within the sea of human consciousness, desires and hopes unfulfilled, transformed into mindless beasts, Personas that had degenerated into demonic tormentors, or even just someone’s true thoughts, slipping inside the minds of their creators, and poisoning them from within…”

“Normally, back in the old days but, like, the REALLY old days, back before even I was here, those things were relegated to places between reality and fiction, between the waking world and dream,” Remus caws with a serious tone, “However, ever since the Dawn of Quirks, it seems that the barriers between these two concepts have gotten… frayed, as of late. Now, all it takes for shadows to start infiltrating your world, is to have a strong enough catalyst, a lighting rod if you will, someone in touch with their inner self, their persona, capable of summoning it at will, right as he is surrounded by plenty of fresh… preys, ripe for the picking.”

“And…” Izuku thinks, eyes suddenly wide as he realizes something, “Was… was I that Lighting rod? Back at the Entrance Exam?”

“Yep,” Anna cheerfully says, popping the P and all, “You are a wildcard, so Shadows will always go nuts over you, they will always be a bit more attuned with your surroundings, which meant that, say, if you were to be suddenly around lots of young teenagers, all keenly affected by their natural bloodlust and desires over becoming the very best hero, like no one ever was, or other such primal feelings such as, say, fear of failing said dreams due to the lack of points, or people stealing them from them…”

“Shadows will start to appear?” Izuku says, voice small and lost, suddenly shrinking within himself, “So I… Was I the one to blame for the entrance exam? Was I the one who… Created the monster who almost killed Uraraka?”

“Nah, of course not, the Shadows are to blame Kid,” Remus dismissively says with a shrug, up atop his perch on the Gacha machine, “You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, they would have still had some sort of influence over the exam had you been there or not, you simply revealed them to the world rather than let them hide in darkness, or in the fog of the human mind.”

“And even then, you do still need to call them over from time to time,” Anna interjects, her tone suddenly turning serious, “Shadows are the only way for your personas to grow organically, as well as your prime source for said personas, be it because you’ve befriended them, or because you’ve defeated them, and they have rewarded you with a Shuffle Time Booster Pack… In either case, you will need to fight Shadows, which means you will have to find a safe and controlled way to lure them forth from now on, otherwise you’ll have to rely on-”

““The Devil Painter’s Gacha Game of Persona!” Patent Pending” Remus suddenly caws with excited glee, “the best and most reliable way to get personas in this wretched world, only ten thousands yen a try to get a chance at getting a Patented, viable Persona Card based on the user’s current soul, no doubles outside of variant cards!”

Izuku is suddenly taken aback by the crows’ outburst, shooting worried glances between him and his attendant.

“Yeah, what featherbrain said,” Anna says with a tired sigh, “Shadows and Packs are all well and good, but in the end, the bulk of the Personas you are gona get? Are either from that blasted machine, or from creating them yourself.”

“Creating… Personas?” Izuku says, eyes wide, “You mean… you mean like that voice say when I forge a new bond? How do I do that?”

“Oh, but by fusion of course,” Igor interjects, smile suddenly wide and slightly unnerving, “Which is where I come in, dear guest. Once you’ve obtained enough personas out of our esteemed… feathered friend here, you will be able to safely store their consciousness within Anna’s compendium, ready to access back to them at a moment notice for a comparatively small fee. Then, you’ll be able to fuse them with my help, the lost personas getting back to the Compendium they’d just been registered in, as you call out from the sea of human consciousness a new, more powerful persona, then to be empowered by the strength of your very bonds.”

Izuku’s mind reels, already writing everything he’s hearing down on his notebook.

“Unfortunately, you do not have… enough Personas to perform a fusion at the moment…” Igor then says with a pensive hum, Izuku’s enthusiasm waning a little, “Your… starting persona doesn’t seem capable of leaving you yet, and the two… faeries at your disposal, if fused together, would only call forth a Persona too powerful for your current state. You will need to expand your collection and train your spirit and body in order to better contain your newfound powers.”

“Which, again, is where I come in!” Remus says with an almost fiendish cackle, “Now, come on, we need to grow up your arsenal and we need to do it fast, who knows what you’ll have to face in the coming days, and it’s not like you are exactly… poor right now, given all the gems and money you got off the last batch of Personas so... Start dropping the hard cash kiddo.”

Izuku gulps, blushing a little at the mention of the money he had just been so unceremoniously saddled with.

It was legit, as were the precious stones coming off the… Shadow Cards, Izuku Assumed, the young university student suddenly finding himself way richer than he had ever expected. At first he had wanted to give them all back to his mom, or maybe to All Might for all his help, but he had expressively refused all money coming from Izuku as compensation, and he couldn’t exactly… reveal to his mother how he had managed to get all that money, what was he supposed to say?

_“Hey mom, do you remember this weird Quirk I literally started developing a year ago despite all rules of genetics saying otherwise? Yeah, it just gave me five times my weight in yen as a reward for kickstarting the death of a couple giant balls who wanted to lick people to death, and we have suddenly gained a small country’s PIL converted in precious gems, cool uh?”_

All he could do about all of this, was tipping the delivery girl as generously as it was morally sensible at least, the young boy unused to such sums of moneys being at his disposal, and wait for an opportunity to put his new funds to good uses.

Still, Izuku was feeling incredibly guilty, afraid he was about to crash and destroy the economy by emitting so much excess money in the economic system, already hyperinflated as it was, to bring Japan to its knees, a worry he couldn’t help but share with All Might, who had genuinely never thought of Izuku’s sudden, magically appeared funds like that, and had so in turn also started to grow worried.

And now, even despite all the stress that had come from this, Izuku was just presented with a way to burn all that money, somewhere where an economic crisis caused by a sudden influx of new money wasn’t an actual possibility and do it all in a way it would empower himself and his Quirk.

He looks back at Remus, who did, over all these months, indeed help him understand his new quirk, help him deal with his new powers, so that he wouldn’t overtire himself my forcing Quixote out during training, who had helped, somehow, with the written part of the entrance exam by asking such inane questions such as “What is the name of the substance that produces light within fireflies?” and Izuku can feel… something stir within him, feeling the bond between them shift and grow.

He could feel, even beneath the barely disguised greed coming off the Raven in droves, the genuine feelings of… Friendship, camaraderie, and maybe something more, something more… familial, somewhat, directed toward him.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou...”**

Time slows back to a crawl, earning a groan from Izuku’s attendant in the process, right as Remus’ card erupts from Izuku’s chest and glows, brightly, passing from its previous rank of I to the following Rank of II.

**“Your bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring Thou closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Jester Arcana.”**

“Ah, it seems it’s 2 to 1 for little old me, hag,” Remus cackles with a pleased caw, “You better step up to the plate before I’m the one who becomes his favourite attendant here.”

Izuku ignores the bickering all around him, as time starts slowly getting back to its proper pace, the voice’s last words echoing in the room.

**“Due to your affinity to the Jester Arcana, Devil Painter’s personas have received a discount of 10% per try.”**

The gacha machine glows slightly, the cost for a try, written in bold, bright letters beneath the pocket for coins changing from 10000 Yens to 9000 one, much to the crow sudden, outraged caws.

“Oh, come on!” He yells, defiantly ignoring the cackles coming out of Anna, “I literally just got back here, and this stupid room is already trying to scam me out of your money! The injustice of it all!”

Izuku chuckles sheepishly, eyes getting back to Remus’ perch, the Gacha Game looking inviting and ready to be cracked open, ready to empower his Quirk with new Personas.

Izuku takes one, deep breath, one hand subconsciously going to his pocket, where the key to the Velvet Room was, grabbing… a handful of his money, mysteriously appearing on his person, before dropping it inside the Gacha Machine, twisting its handle…

Right as a bright, blue-coloured capsule falls down the hatch, trembling hands silently going for it, to reveal the equally blue coloured Persona card inside.

Izuku’s eyes sparkle brightly as infinite new possibilities open in front of him, more of his money already in his hands for a second drop.

“Oh, great, the kid has gotten a gambling addiction now,” Anna comments with a sigh, Izuku barely registering it as a second capsule drops, this one bright purple, “Don’t waste all you money on that now kid, it’s not like you can hold more than 6 personas at a time right now, and you should want to leave at least one free space for the possibility of a Shadow befriending you, so stop giving that feathered bastard money and start working on what you have right now.”

Izuku stops, as if he had just gotten out of a trance, the desire for more personas greatly overshadowed by the desire to experiment with Quirk as he shakes his head from side to side, before giving his attendant a sheepish chuckle.

“Now, it’s getting pretty late even for you kid, how about we call it a night?” Anna continues saying, a warm, almost… motherly smile on her face, one hand going to Izuku’s hair and ruffling them.

“Come on kid, tomorrow is a big day after all, wouldn’t want to fall asleep during your first class of UA, right?”

* * *

Izuku does not, fortunately enough, drop asleep in the middle of his first day at UA, even despite the eyebags he had been sporting under his eyes, not helped by the restless night of sleep he had just had, tossing and turning in his bed at the endless… possibilities he seemed to have in front of him and his Quirk.

And yet, even despite the restless night, Izuku is now completely awake, nerves and jitters overcharging him as he stares wide eyes looking terrorized at the man standing in front of his class.

“A test of our Quirks?!”

Aizawa Shota, who apparently also happens to be their homeroom teacher, sporting some dark eyebags to rival Izuku’s owns all the while looking like the perfect cross between a serial killer and a homeless person, has decided to forego classic first day activities such as entrance ceremonies or guidance sessions, to drag his new class of 20 prospective future heroes, down to one of UA many training grounds, to better evaluate each of the new student’s capabilities, the class now each in their gym uniforms.

“Of course,” His bored, almost disinterested drawl drags on, eying his startled class with a note of disdain, “This country still forces schools not to score their students based on their effective Quirk capabilities, artificially fixing the numbers of each of them by some obtuse, antiquated statistic. That is Illogical. You will all partake in a series of tests, no different than the ones you’ve been doing all your life in PE, but this time you will be allowed to use your Quirks, so that I will be able to better gouge your actual potentials and limits. Now, to begin… Uraraka Ochaco.”

Uraraka squeaks in fright, taking a hasty step forward, standing ramrod straight as she awaits further instructions, a pang of sympathy spiking through Izuku’s chest as she instantly starts doing her doing her best impression of a small rodent coming suddenly face to face with a large, hungry snake.

“You’ve scored first in the entrance exam, show us a small demonstration of what I’m talking about. You can do whatever you want to the ball, as long as you don’t leave the pitch, let’s see how far you can throw it.”

Uraraka gulps, suddenly all eyes on her, as she heads toward the centre field, grabs the ball with her full, open palm, all fingers on it…

And throws it straight against the stratosphere.

“Oops…” Uraraka chuckles sheepishly, the ball disappearing in the horizon right as the rectangular device in Aizawa’s hands boots up, revealing the symbol of infinity.

The class loses their collective shit.

“HOLY FUCK!” A pink skinned girl with dark eyes and small horns spurting off her short, pink hair, Ashido Mina from what Izuku remembers, exclaims, “What the hell are they feeding you girl, that was insane!”

“I know right? That was so freaking manly!” Her red-haired companion, Kirishima, Izuku barely remembering him as the one who had come 4th at the entrance exam, exclaims in turn, “Teach me your secrets, how freaking buff did you have to get to throw that hard!”

“I- It’s just my Quirk really,” Uraraka sheepishly say as more and more student gather all around her, all the attention getting to her “I can just remove the gravity of everything I touch and then release it at will, no big deal...”

“No big deal she says… It shows she was the top ranked in the entrance exam uh?” Shinso mutters at Izuku’s left, low enough he isn’t even sure if he was supposed to hear him, “Damn, How the hell are we supposed to compete with that…”

“Getting all… friendly with the competition now, are we?” Aizawa’s drawl, suddenly sporting a dangerous, laser focused edge, cuts through his students’ cheery demeanour like a knife through melted butter, “Then how about this, let’s raise the stakes a little, the one who manages to score the lowest points on this test will get expelled off this class effective immediately.”

Izuku’s nerves don’t even have the time to flare up that he can already feel the young man beside him go into pure, wordless panic, freezing up at Aizawa’s words instantly, completely ignoring Izuku’s worried glance.

“That’s… that’s unfair!” Uraraka yells, almost without thinking, instantly stepping up in between Aizawa and her fellow students, “This is just our first day here, you can’t-”

“Unfair?” Aizawa says, Uraraka instantly shutting up, mouth clamming shut at the glare currently directed toward her, “You think life is fair missy? Every day out there, something awful happens to someone who doesn’t even deserve it, all because rampaging villains had decided what was and wasn’t fair to them, or because a natural disaster had struck at the most inopportune of times before anyone could do anything. Heroes, the very same thing you are all wishing to become, are this society’s stalwart defenders, the only thing standing between Villains bringing us back to the bad old days of unregulated chaos, and if you thought, even for a second, that just because you had managed to get into the top hero university in the country, you were all allowed to take these three years easy, then I’m sorry to disappoint you because what awaits each and every one of you here will be pure. Unfiltered. Hell. On. Earth.”

Everyone gulps, eyes fixed on their teacher as he yawns, loudly, before prowling his way toward the 50-meter run dash course, his class following close behind.

“New, get to it and do it quickly, we don’t have all day you know.”

* * *

Everyone tries their best to run the dash as fast as they can, each test being taken in couples, and Izuku curses his inability to write down all the amazing Quirks as they are currently being displayed in front of him as he stares at his classmates, each using their own quirks to their advantage.

Still, he steels his nerves, his turn finally arrived, as he heads toward the starting line, heart beating loudly in his chest.

Unfortunately, each couple seems to be based by seating position, meaning that Izuku, currently the number 18 student, now happens to be the one racing against his old childhood friend, his old bully...

Bakugou Katsuki.

On the bright side, he keeps saying… nothing at him, not even focusing a glare into his direction as he readies himself for his own dash, and Izuku, almost childishly, thinks that maybe he’s not really gona do anything to him now, that maybe all he’s gona get from him are some random glares and the silent treatment.

Izuku, despite everything they used to have, or at least he thought they used to have, would be ok with that.

“And begin.”

“EXPLOSIVE SPEED!”

Bakugou sprints off, explosions erupting from his hands as he uses the momentum caused by them to propel him forward, the blast radius almost investing Izuku right on the starting line, startling him and almost making him fall.

Despite the false start, Izuku doesn’t give up yet, blue card already in hand.

“Persona!”

Quixote appears out of blue flames, startling the students who had yet to see Izuku’s quirk, right as he jumps as high as he can, right in front of the knight, his lance ready.

He could be galloping with the knight, but there is not enough ground nor time to properly let Quixote’s horse reach the top speeds he needs, so he opts, in the fraction of a second he needed to think of a plan, for the next best thing.

He orders his Persona to throw a whole child out.

“Bash!” Izuku yells, Quixote’s lance hitting at his feet, readied for the occasion, as if he was a baseball player, springing Izuku off toward the finish line with a sudden scream, the young teen having misjudged just how strong and fast he was going to actually fly.

Izuku screams through the air, launched by Quixote’s impressive strength, barely managing to reach out to Bakugou as they pass the finish line, one after the other, as the local robot chirps out the times of each student.

The whole thing only took 4,15 seconds total, losing to Bakugou by a mere 0,02 seconds.

Izuku’s ow of pain is mostly a reflex, no real pain actually being felt by his body due to Quixote’s natural resistance to physical damage, as he falls face down on the ground, completely ignoring the comments from the other students gathered there, as well as the astounded, borderline murderous glare coming from his immediate vicinities.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT DEKU?!” Bakugou yells, teeth grinding against each other as he finally notices the empty armour on horse galloping toward them from it’s spot on the starting line, right toward them, “AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING?!”

“Ah, Midoriya’s quirk is as shiny and as chivalrous as I remember,” Aoyama opens his big, fat mouth, seemingly entertaining some of their fellow classmates, completely unaware of the sudden spike of killing intent in the area the second he mentioned the Q word, “Almost as twinkly as me I say! Why, I remember it like it was yesterday, when he so valiantly used his knight to save our very own number one student, aren’t I right Uraraka-Chan?”

Uraraka, suddenly back in the spotlight, only startles a little this time, already ready to gush over how cool Izuku had been during the Entrance Exam, cheery smile on her face, before a scream of utter, impotent rage tears everyone attention away from her, a boiling Bakugou, eyes white with rage, fists impossibly tight, launching himself toward Izuku.

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Two things happen right at the same time.

The first, is Quixote instantly dropping off his horse, positioning himself between the incoming threat and a still downed Izuku, arms crossed in a defensive stance, ready to take Bakugou on, a dark reprise, almost out of a funhouse mirror, of Izuku’s own attempts at defending those kids, crying and scared on the ground, from Bakugou’s own Quirk.

The other, is the subtle, hissing sound of explosions frizzling into nothing, as white tape shoots out of their homeroom teacher’s scarf right as his hair start hovering in the hair, eyes red and bloodshot as she stares a struggling Bakugou down, trapping him before he could even reach the defending knight.

“Causing problems on purpose now?” He grinds out, voice taking a threatening growl, “Do you really want to squander all of your potential over such petty- Stop using your Quirk this instant or you’re the one getting expelled today, my eyes are getting irritated!”

Bakugou slowly, progressively… doesn’t calm down, that’s an impossible state of mind for him to have, all Bakugou does is simply stop his struggling, hiding his anger for a later date, for a later explosion, right as something in Izuku’s mind clicks.

“You- You are the pro hero Eraserhead!” Izuku exclaims with a wide smile, finally able to recognize the man, causing some perplexed murmurs to come out of the crowd of onlooking students.

“Yes, and you both are giving me such a headache right now,” their homeroom teacher finally says, removing the tape from Bakugou the second he is sure he’s not gona try anything else fishy, motioning for the next couple to do their own dash, discretely applying some eyedrops to his irritated eyes in the process.

Izuku tries to get as far away from his childhood bully as possible, still feeling his glare directed toward him.

Only for the unexpected to happen.

“Oh hey, Bakugou right?” Shinso asks his fellow student as he readies himself on the starting spot, a small smirk appearing on his face as he “Can I ask you… a personal question?”

Bakugou figuratively explodes.

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT YOU CREE-”

* * *

“I can’t believe you’ve done that!” Iida shouts, hands waving and chopping the air mechanically in front of him, “The humanity! Such an unheroic thing to do to a fellow student!”

“Oh come on, live up a little,” Shinso simply says, sporting a rare, shit eating grin, “The professor said we could use our Quirk in every way we wanted, I simply used mine at the best of my capabilities by simply… convincing one of my classmates into taking the same tests for me.”

“I mean, I admit it makes sense, but why Kacchan?” Izuku mutters, confused, earning a couple of confused glances from his new friends at the moniker, “You barely managed to arrive fifth that way, and as the nineteenth student in class you had the ability to analyse everyone else’s scores but Yaoyorozu’s before taking your turn, you could have easily used your Quirk on everyone who had scored the max points on each thing and easily gotten yourself the… second place actually.”

Everyone collectively shudder at the absolute trashing the tall, poised young woman had given the lot of them during all the tests they had to take, culminating with her incredible victory during the class wide endurance run.

_“Geez, who would have thought Yaoyorozu had such a MONSTER of a Quirk?”_

“In all honesty? I was just trying not to get expelled, not win this pointless thing, and even then, he is a prick and he’s by far the most annoying among all our classmates, if he ends up hating me over this, I say good riddance to that,” Shinso says with a half-hearted shrug, “It’s not my fault if he kept answering my personal questions like a complete idiot.”

“I… I feel he was more like screaming incoherently at you rather than answering,” Izuku says with a defeated sigh, “That being said, poor Hagakure, good thing Mr. Aizawa wasn’t serious with all that talk about expulsions, I’ll have to prepare some extra curry for her to cheer her up!”

Shinso’s snorts at Izuku’s declaration, and before Iida can descend into yet another lecture over Izuku not having to do everything for everyone, the merry group is reached back by Uraraka.

“Hey guys!” Uraraka cheerfully greets, “Are you all going back to the dorms? Damn, I’m beat after today, can’t wait to take a long shower and hibernate till tomorrow.”

She now focuses on Izuku, smile shining brightly, his cheeks’ taking on a red pigmentation, “Oh, and congrats on getting the third place on the Quirk Assessment Test Deku! I might have dropped down to tenth place, but I promise you I’ll get back to the top soon, so don’t you dare slack off now!”

“D- Deku?!” Izuku squeaks out, startled, barely registering Uraraka’s apparent declaration of war, the old nickname clawing at the back of his mind like a cocked-up stray cat.

“I mean… wasn’t that what that Bakugou guy called you during after the 50 meters dash?” Uraraka says, a frown appearing on her features, “I thought that was like a nickname or something…”

“That… That name brings us some unpleasant memories actually…” Izuku simply says, suddenly trying to get as small as possible under his classmates as he swallows, slowly, the thick lump currently lodged in his throat, “Deku is the wrong way you can read my a- actual name, it… it means… It means useless, it’s a nickname Kacchan usually uses when he wants to insult me.”

“Oh…” Uraraka says, breath rushing out of her, right as Izuku could feel Iida and Shinso’s freezing up at his side, Izuku’s words from last night’s dinner still heavy on two of his three new friends’ minds, “Damn that sucks, sorry!”

“D- Don’t worry, you didn’t know!” Izuku hastily says, not wanting his new friend to feel bad over such stupid things as how he felt over a childish nickname.

“Still, it does suck, I thought it meant something like “Do your Best” or “You can do it!” instead” Uraraka says, a cute pout appearing on her face as she dejectedly looks to the side, “I kinda liked the way it sounded too...”

Izuku’s eyes widen at the sight, eyes growing impossibly red as his brain shuts down, mouth opening before he can even think to stop it as his world turns upside down in one, single second.

“DEKU IS FINE!” He almost yells, almost, Uraraka’s mood cheering up slightly at his words, even as Iida lets out astartled cry at the volume, “YOU CAN CALL ME EVERYTHING YOU LIKE.”

“Really? That’s great!” Uraraka says, her good cheer suddenly turning serious, a dark resolve taking over her features, “Don’t worry, I promise you I will help you make plenty of new, better memories to associate with that nickname be that the last thing I do!”

Izuku chuckles slightly at her words, his blush doing nothing to subside, not even when he feels spindly arms wrapping behind his shoulders, holding him slightly to the side.

“Alas _Mon Ami_ …” Aoyama, who had seemingly rushed all his way from off screen just to catch back onto the last part of the group’s conversation, easily interjects, face uncomfortably close to one of Izuku’s ears, “It seems you have become the most wretched of creatures today… for you see, you have just turned into what we in France like to call… _Le Simp_.”

Izuku sputters, eyes impossibly wide scanning in between all his friends, from Aoyama’s knowing grin to Shinso being absolutely no help as he chokes on his own spit and almost stumbles to the ground, and a perplexed Uraraka, looking at each of them in confusion.

“Midoriya,” Iida, probably the most serious person Izuku had ever known, his bespectacled eyes glaring… not exactly at Midoriya, but at somewhere around him, voice firm but surprisingly gentle, one hand going to his shoulder and steading him “While I appreciate your sentiments and your desires to overcome your past, I feel like you should not force yourself to like this nickname just to make your new friends happy. Your own feelings on the matter are also important and should not be discarded so easily.”

Izuku gulps at the other teen’s words, his feelings resonating within himself and his fellow classmates around him, as he feels himself growing closer to them, almost as if their bonds are about to mature, but not quite.

“I- I know, but don’t worry,” Izuku says with a small chuckle, “Deku is fine. It might still sting a little now, but It’s like Uraraka said! Maybe… Maybe one day, I’ll start associating that name with all the wonderful memories I made with all of you instead!”

“Exactly!” Uraraka says with a bright smile, “Oh man, I was all pooped after today’s lesson, but I don’t want this day to end yet! I brought a bunch of board games back from home, we could play with them in the common room, start making some of those new memories right about now, what do you say?!”

Izuku’s smile brightens, agreeing to Uraraka’s proposal alongside his new friends, ready to spend some quality time with them, the first of many to come.

* * *

Unfortunately for everyone involved, or fortunately by a certain point of view, Uraraka seemed to only like playing board games on an extremely competitive level, and with real money on the line.

Izuku didn’t know what impressed him more, the fact she had somehow managed to convince Iida that this was, in fact, NOT gambling, which meant they were, therefore, allowed to play it on the university’s grounds…

Or the fact that she had managed to swindle the four of them out of so much real cash in one single game of high stakes competitive Uno.

Either way her bright smile didn’t waver the entire night.

And neither did Izuku’s.

* * *

Classes at UA are, for the most part, fairly normal all things considered.

Even if each of its teachers also happens to be a Pro Hero, Hero Universities needed to give their students a general curriculum alongside their hero oriented classes, all in order to make the degree they were getting out of it worth something in society.

They couldn’t simply hyper-focus on simple heroic courses, least some of them decided to quit the pro hero business and needed their degree for something other than, well, heroism, a generally unheard of thing for UA students of course, especially given the advantages they always had had over other, less funded or less well-regarded universities, but still a possibility nonetheless.

Even knowing this, Izuku can’t help but be bored out of his skull after each new lecture, his inner nerd barely fanboying at the sight of so many pro heroes teaching him more and more boring subjects, especially when one had a mind going a mile a minute over everything the professor told them.

And why the heck did Midnight start a lecture over the Gods Izanami and Izanagi the very first lesson she had been in?

Still, there are some upsides to this.

The meals are cheap, for starter, and the cafeteria is stimulating enough for Izuku to get out of his funk and start fanboying back again.

“Oh god is the Pro Hero LUNCH RUSH!” Izuku exclaims as he seats in the university’s own cafeteria for lunch, all fatigue instantly gone even despite the dark bags under his eyes, the aforementioned Pro Hero chuckling slightly at the attention as he takes in the students’ orders, spouting about the sublime properties of rice.

“So, what do you guys think are we gona do for next class?” Uraraka asks her friends with a cheery smile, “God, I hope we’re doing something more physically active than this morning’s lessons, I know they are important and all but who knew Present Mic of all people could be so boring when teaching English…”

“While I agree with your sentiment Uraraka, I’m afraid we’re probably going to get a lecture on proper safety protocols during today’s Heroics 101,” Iida says, causing Uraraka’s good cheer to fade as she slumps in her seat, “Still, how very sloppy of UA to not properly include the course’s professor in the school curriculum, we could be about to be taught by any pro hero right now and none of us would be psychologically prepared for it!”

Izuku chuckles, something telling him he knows exactly who is going to teach that day’s lesson, right as a familiar bowl of meat is slid right in front of him.

“Uh?” Izuku genially says, craning his neck up toward Lunch Rush figure… only to find a familiar delivery girl standing right beside him.

“What are you doing here?” Izuku can’t stop himself from asking, eyes wide, astounded as he is to find the Aiya Delivery Girl standing there, dressed in the cafeteria white uniform, and serving them their meals.

“Oh, do you already know my niece?” Lunch Rush simply says with a cheery tone, “She’s started helping me in the university’s cafeteria for this year, I hope you all will get along with her.”

“He’s just a regular at my other job uncle,” She simply says with her signature monotone, unimpressed drawl, a bored gaze sweeping through Izuku, “Still, I do admit you do give out good tips however, even if his dad seems like a stingy miser sometimes, which is the only reason I’m giving you this bowl on the house today’s only, to... Encourage prolonged good behaviour.”

Izuku, who had at that point received the actual meal he had ordered and had started eating it, chokes on his food at the girl’s words, her and Lunch Rush leaving to go serve another table as Izuku tries to recover a little from his sudden shock.

“Deku, did you know that girl?” Uraraka says in a curious tone, eyeing the retreating form of the other girl with a frown, “She looks familiar...”

“I… She works as a delivery girl for Aiya, it’s a chain of restaurants all around the country famous for their speedy food delivery, me and my…” Izuku has to visibly stop himself so to find what exactly All Might is to him, “… Trainer, yeah, my Personal Trainer, from back before the Entrance Exam, are regulars of their special meat bowl menu. It’s really good even if incredibly spicy.”

“Spicy? And you’ve only been eating this for months?” Shinso says with an unimpressed drawl, “Yeah, no, I think I’ll doubt you on this one, I bet this tastes like unseasoned chicken but, like... Blander, somehow.”

“I mean, you can try a bite if you don’t believe me?” Izuku says with a pout, offering his “You all can if you want, it’s a free bowl anyway, and I can always eat one of this when I’m outside, I want to try Lunch Rush’s food today instead!”

“You are… offering us free food?” Uraraka says, saliva drooling from her mouth down in healthy rivulets, already ready to jump into the meat bowl herself and inhale it on the spot.

“I mean, yeah, just be careful, it takes an acquired taste to properly enjoy this, so try not to not to-” It’s too late, as a famished Uraraka takes a stab at Izuku’s bowl, piece of meat already in her mouth and chewing, “Get a full piece of meat in your mouth all at once.”

“Ah, this doesn’t seem so bad.” Uraraka says as she still chews, mouth full of food, seemingly fine and unscathed as she swallows the piece…

Only for literal flames to erupt off her mouth soon after, her face impossibly red as she almost passes out, dropping down on the floor, Izuku and Iida jumping up from their seats at the same time and going at her side in worry.

The Aiya Delivery Girl appears as if out of thin air, dropping a cartoon of milk and a glass in front Uraraka’s empty seat before leaving, Uraraka instantly springing back up from the floor at the sight of it and drowning herself in milk, foregoing the glass all together as she chugs directly from the carton, much to the other three teens’ amazement.

“Oh come one, it can’t be that spicy-” Shinso soon regrets these words as he takes his own bite of Izuku’s now abandoned bowl, eyes watering the second the piece of meat touches his sensitive tongue, his face turning an impossible shade of red as Shinso falls off his seat to the floor, literal flames coming out of his mouth and nostrils in jets of fire upward.

A second cartoon of milk is unceremoniously poured all over his face by the Aiya Delivery Girl, quenching the mounting flames before she simply steps over Shinso’s almost comatose body, taking great care not to step on him as she gets back to her other duties, completely unaffected by the recent events.

“Ah, I think I’ll pass for today,” Aoyama says with a strained smile, “My poor stomach will need to be in tip top shape for today’s lesson, I wouldn’t want to ruin it right before being able to show the world my radiance!”

“And you’ve been living off this for ten month all the way to the entrance exam?!” Uraraka wails in between impotent tears, her red, burned tongue out as she tries to wriggle even more milk off the now empty carton, the four, still conscious teens all keenly aware of the spectacle they seem to be making.

“How the heck are you not dead yet, Deku?!”

Izuku simply shrugs with a nervous chuckle.

“You know what Uraraka? I’ve been asking myself the same thing every day in my life.”

* * *

Basic Hero Training.

A staple among all kinds of Heroics courses out there.

And, currently, taught at UA by one, very specific teacher.

“I AM HERE… COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!”

All Might bedazzles Izuku’s classmates with his very presence, a thrill going through everyone’s spines as they realize that, finally, after such a slog of a day all based on basic, general courses, they can finally stretch their legs a little in Battle Training, and beat the crap out of one another.

So, costumed and ready to throw down, the students of class 1-A are ushered in Training Ground Beta, a giant, faux city, not so different than one of the ones they had to take the entrance exams in, and were randomly set up for 2 V 2 battles, each combination and couple chosen by random draw.

Izuku gulps, finding himself with the last person he expected to be partnered with, standing alongside the other students, all paired up in the large square inside the fake city.

“Hello,” The tall, raven haired woman greets him, a polite smile on her lips, “I’m Yaoyorozu Momo, I hope our partnership will be mutually beneficial in today’s exercise.”

Izuku gulps, his traitorous teenage brain betraying him once more as he awkwardly sputters in surprise, eyes growing wide and yet staying valiantly and defiantly fixed on the taller girl’s face, even despite the abysmally designed costume she was currently sporting.

Say what you will about his costume, say it was uncool and stitched together say it was very derivative of All Might’s own persona, even say it made him look a lot like an overgrown, green-furred giant bunny, but at least it didn’t have a massive hole right where his chest was for people to ogle at.

“I’m… I’m sure we’ll do g-great!” Izuku stammers out, earning an overtly polite smile from the other girl, the two of them currently representing Team A in the current exercise.

Izuku looked around the square he and his teammates were all placed in, noticing each newly made team in there.

Team B seems to be composed by Sero Henta, a young man with literal tape dispensers coming out of his elbows, and Jiro Kyoka, a girl with headphone jacks coming out of her ears, currently striking up their own conversation a on the far edge of the crowd.

Team C was instead composed by Koda Koji, a large, rock headed boy who could talk with animals, as well as Kirishima Eijiro, a half-naked man with spiky red hair who could harden every part of his body as if it was stone, the smaller, more boisterous part of the duo currently excitedly explaining something to the shier, bigger one.

Team D, and Izuku trembled slightly as he saw him in his own hero costume of choice, was none other than Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya’s old bully, as well as Hagakure Toru, the blonde boy ignoring the invisible girl’s attempts at conversation, a deranged smile on his face, probably even more pumped up than the other students over the prospect of beating the shit out of someone.

Team E was composed by his now good friends Iida and Uraraka instead, currently chatting up strategy close by them, Izuku trying his best to ignore them least he gained some perceived unfair advantage on his friends in case his own team happened to be paired up against them.

Team F was composed by none other than Aoyama, another of Izuku’s friends, and Todoroki Shoto, the guy with half white, half red hair that had completely ignored Izuku the first day at the dorms, back when he tried to strike a conversation with him, the later doing his best as he ignored the former’s antics, Aoyama posing flamboyantly all around his new teammate to assert dominance.

Team G was composed instead by Ojiro Mashira, a quiet young man with a muscled, naked tail coming out his back, as well as Ashido Mina, a pink skinned girl with horns and dark sclera in her eyes, the later eagerly chatting up the former, without even leaving him an opportunity to speak.

Team H was then composed, by some weird twist of fate, by Tokoyami Fumikage, a raven headed (As in, sporting a literal raven’s head) boy, and Asui Tsuyu, a girl with a very evident frog mutation quirk, the two currently perching silently off two nearby lampposts, one brooding over it, his dark cloak covering him entirely, the other squatting, her large, inexpressive eyes staring at the crowd of students below.

Team I was composed by Shinso, dressed in his own hero costume, a generic blue and black suit, a metallic device attached to his mouth, as well as Kaminari Denki, a blonde haired boy with an electric Quirk, the two chatting up their own strategies a little far from the main group.

And last but not least was Team J, sporting the two members of the class with the biggest size, one Shoji Mezo, a giant of a man with large, multiple arms, and one Sato Rikido, a big lipped boy who could increase his strength based on how much sugar he consumed, the two talking quietly to themselves.

All of them with their own, amazing Quirks and strengths, and Izuku had to soon face two of them in a closed-up environment. A small frown creased Izuku’s brow as he already started strategizing, already started analysing each of his classmates what he knew and didn’t know about all of them, their perceived weaknesses and strengths...

“Ah, squaring up the competition I see,” Yaoyorozu comments with a small smile, startling Izuku from his reprieve “Wise, if a bit underhanded. Tell me, who do you think is the strongest team we might have to face?”

Izuku hums at the young woman’s words, her sudden vicinity instantly overshadowed by his brain going a mile a minute as he analysed each team structure in front of him.

“I don’t have enough info over some of our classmates’ Quirks to properly judge their potential right now, but from what I can tell from here and what little I do know?” Izuku whispers to Yaoyorozu, trying not to be heard by the other students, “The only ones who seem to be properly strategizing are Team B, E, I and J. Shinso seems to be foregoing his brainwashing Quirk on Kaminari right now, but that might become a issue if he decided to maintain his partner to maximum efficiency later on and start the brainwashing in the middle of the match. I don’t know enough about teams J and B to judge them yet, but Iida and Uraraka know each other well enough already and have a good grasp of their own powers, so I’d guess they might be among the collectively best coordinated teams here… Altought, I must admit I might be a bit biased on that.”

Yaoyorozu simply hums in agreement, “Yes, I can see that. About team B, Jirou’s quirk should allow her to hear everything happening around her, which coupled with Sero’s Quirk it might make the two of them able to easily ambush enemies within the small always of those buildings. Speaking of, what about you, I don’t think you can fit that Quirk in their buildings, and even without the horse that armour of yours doesn’t really seem ideal for an eventual infiltration mission.”

Izuku gives out a nervous chuckle at Yaoyorozu’s word, “Don’t worry, I can leave the horse outside the building, and I’m pretty sure the main rooms are large enough to fit it in case we were to be villains today and I needed to summon it in there. And even if he was really too big or too clunky to use during the match, I still have more tricks up my sleeve to summon, don’t worry.”

This causes Yaoyorozu’s brow to furrow slightly, but before she can ask him to elaborate further on that, All Might returns to them with the boxes he’s going to use to decide who was going to fight whom and in which role.

Izuku gulps as he sees All Might’s hands descending in each box, one for the villain team, the other for the hero one, ready to announce the first match of the day.

_“Let’s just hope we’re fighting something that isn’t Team D at least…”_

* * *

Izuku has to fight Team D.

Izuku has to fight Bakugou.

Deku has to fight Kacchan.

Because of course he does.

And to top it off, he has to do it as a Villain.

“So, strategizing,” Yaoyorozu instantly says the second they reach their fake bomb, the one they will have to protect for the 15 minutes of the exercise, “I’ll start booby trapping the doors to this room, boarding them up, maybe setting up some mines around the windows too in case Bakugou decided to blast his way up here? Wouldn’t want Hagakure to sneak up on us either, I’m going to coat the floor with itching powder, maybe some spikes, we should take advantage of the sad state of her costume the best we can, and it should allow us to see where she were to step.”

Yaoyorozu turns back at Izuku, frowning slightly at his trembling, worried form.

“You seem to have some sort of… history with this Bakugou, are you sure you are up to this?”

Izuku snaps back to reality, turning toward his teammate. As scared as he is right now, this is his chance to beat his childhood bully, and even then, he still owes to his teammate to give her his 110%.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” He lies with the practiced ease of someone who has said this same lie all his life, “And I’d advise against booby trapping any of the corridors, especially with explosives, that’d only get him angrier.”

Izuku pauses, deep in thought, and Yaoyorozu waiting for him to continue with a patient smile, “And yes, I do have history with him, but so does he with me. If I know him, he will probably attempt to do a beeline straight for me and ditch his partner, easily splitting them up. We can either attempt to catch Hagakure unaware, but that would mean leaving the bomb unprotected, or I might try to ambush them by myself while you keep reinforcing the bomb room. Separating Kacchan from Hagakure would also allow you to wear Heat Vision googles… do you know how to make- Oh, yeah, great, anyway, without the issue of Bakugou’s explosions blinding you, all you’ll need to do then is block out the light coming out of the windows to blinding Hagakure in turn, evening the playing field for the both of you, if not outright tipping you in your favour thanks to your own ability to see her body thanks to the googles.”

Yaoyorozu nods with a slight smirk, a hand slowly going to her cle-

Izuku INSTANTLY averts his eyes, cheeks burning a bright red beneath his rabbit-like full face mask and mouthguard, right as Yaoyorozu starts boarding up the windows, trying to eliminate as many sources of light as possible.

“While letting an unhinged opponent come directly at us might allow us to make him fall into a trap, we would still need to take into consideration his explosions, and the way he might harm the bomb we are supposed to protect with them, even if without noticing,” Yaoyorozu comments with a soft hum as she keeps on working, hammer and nails already produced out of her body, “It might be risky, but I’m willing to trust your judgement on this one. Try to set up an ambush in one of the corridors farthest from us, without giving away the location you were coming from possibly, and please, don’t make me regret this.”

Izuku gulps at the sudden authoritative tone suddenly seeping through, before he nods.

“Alright, we still have a couple minutes to spare, help me out set up some of the traps in here, and then go prepare your ambush. We’ll keep in contact via our earpieces, contact me the second something goes wrong with our plan, got it?”

* * *

The first match of class 1-A’s battle trial has finally begun, and Izuku can already hear the starting explosion coming from the front door, signalling Kacchan’s irruption in the building.

 _“Or at least that’s what he’d like us to think,”_ Izuku thinks with a pensive hum.

It would be easy for Izuku to think of Bakugou Katsuki as an unthinking brute, but after years of analysing the guy, Izuku knew that under all those layers of barely supressed rage, was one, thin layer of devious tactics and skilful abilities.

Which in turn covered further layers of more barely supressed rage.

So, while Izuku assumed the boy might want to make people assume he was impulsively barging in from the main door, Izuku knew his bully well enough to know that that was, in fact, a ploy by Kacchan to lull them into a false sense of security in the case they were made aware of it’s ploy, of lead directly into a ambush prepared by the explosion powered bully.

Izuku now needed to evince exactly which plan of action had Kacchan decided to go through, and hope in turn for him not to guess Izuku’s possible reaction, thus spiralling the two counterparts into an eternal guessing game over who was going to do what and when, trying to decide the battle before the two had even met each other.

However, in this eternal battle of 4-D chess between the two former childhood friends rages on, neither of them realizes that there was a third player added to their eternal rivalry right now.

And she happened to be playing Tic Tac Toe.

Naked feet on an empty floor are way louder than people gave it credit for, and even without those, the whisper-shouted cries for her partner to slow down, coming from the corridor directly to Izuku’s right, instantly gave away the surprisingly stealthy Kacchan’s position.

“Slow down I said, we are a team!”

“I said shut up and get the hell away from me you Extra, I don’t care what you-”

Izuku, never the initiator in any of his previous fights with his childhood bully, realizes far too late that he doesn’t exactly have a plan on how to properly ambush Bakugou, especially if the rest of his plan were to go off without a hitch.

Then again, he is a villain right now, and everyone knows real villains never truly ambush heroes from out of nowhere.

No.

Villains must always get in some good gloating first.

“B-Bakugou Katsuki!” Izuku the heaviest bellow he can muster, voice only slightly trembling right as he slips in, pardon his pun, Persona for the occasion, “My eternal nemesis, it seems you finally come to-”

Izuku doesn’t even have the time to finish his line that Bakugou already assaults him, eyes wide with rage, teeth gnawing, starting with his slow, telegraphed right hook, like he always does.

Izuku is ready for it, grabbing at his arm, using his own strength against him as he throws him on the ground, a startled Bakugou falling onto his back, eyes wide in shock.

“I’ve been your punching bag for years Kacchan, I know how-” Izuku doesn’t even have the time for gloating as Hagakure drops on him from behind, her invisible arms holding at his neck as she attempts to grapple him to the ground, floating capture tape in her hands.

“God, does neither of you understand the importance of a good villain monologue?” Izuku mutters, managing to easily overpower the invisible girl and judo throw her toward Bakugou, already back on his feet and unprepared for the sudden weight slamming against his chest.

“I said get the fuck away from me you Extra,” Bakugou snarls, eyes wide with rage as he literally drops his own teammate on the ground from above him, earning an outraged squeak in the process, “Go to the fucking bomb or something, I don’t care, this is between me and Deku over here!”

“F- Fine!” Hagakure yells, apparently fed up with Bakugou’s shit, “I’ll go capture that bomb now that there’s only one villain defending it, you try to-”

“Don’t tell me what to do you useless Extra!” Bakugou snarls back, “You’re lucky you’re still here and didn’t get expelled the first day for how weak you were, now get the fuck away from me!”

Izuku can hear one sniffle coming from the invisible girl, right before the sound of feet slapping the floor head back toward the direction Izuku had been coming from, heading right on the other side of where the bomb was supposed to be, a small smirk appearing on Izuku’s lips.

“The fuck are you smiling at Deku?” Bakugou snarls in turn, “Having a laugh at the lot of us for making us think you were a stupid Quirkless loser all along?”

Izuku grinds his teeth in response, fists tightening at his side at Bakugou’s words, nerves and patience starting to fray, just a little, after the years of verbal and physical abuse he had to go through by the hands of this same boy.

“I am legally barred from answering this question,” Izuku says in between gritted teeth, still smiling at his opponent, “And even then, even if I really had a Quirk all along, why the hell I should have told anything about it to you _Kacchan_!”

The nickname is spat out like an insult, as if he was Bakugou right now, and his opponent was Deku, Bakugou’s eyes widening even further as he blasts the ground behind him, charging at Izuku head on with a kick.

Izuku dodges the kick, capture tape already in his hands and snagging at Bakugou’s leg, only for him to dodge the same right hook from before, empowered with explosion as it was, separating the two opponents once again.

“Why don’t you use that stupid quirk now uh, fight me at your strongest you useless bastard!” Bakugou snarls, already back against Izuku, his assault unrelentless as a second kick is aimed at Izuku’s masked face, the young man barely managing to miraculously dodge it again as he lowers himself, Bakugou slamming against the nearby wall with a grunt, “And stop dodging me you slippery bastard!”

“I’d love to K-Kacchan, but I’m afraid I can’t do it right now,” Izuku says with a huff, “Not until the time limit ends at least.”

“You gona end this game by making me run out of time you coward?!” Bakugou shrieks, hands on the wall behind him and blasting, breaking it down as he propels himself toward him, “Are you looking down on me? Is that why you never told me about your fucking Quirk?!”

“Looking down on you?!” Izuku grinds his teeth, his own nerves fraying as he manages another miraculous dodge, getting low beneath him, “LOOKING DOWN ON YOU?!”

Izuku punches at him, straight in his exposed stomach from below, Bakugou coughing in pain at the impact, the young boy stumbling away from his opponent, astounded.

“You stupid… Kacchan I looked up to you even envied you! The boy who capable of doing everything, while there I was, Useless Deku, tagging along with you… And then you had to ruin it!”

Izuku attempts another punch, but Bakugou expects it this time, his own, sparkling palm ready to descend on him, only for Izuku to change trajectory mid hit, dodging Bakugou’s attack and unbalancing him with a sweep of his leg.

“5 MINUTES REMAINING!” All Might’s booming voice reverberates within Izuku and Bakugou’s headpieces, Bakugou’s eyes growing white with rage at the prospect of his imminent defeat by the hands of Deku of all people.

“Seems your time is almost up… Kacchan,” Izuku says with an unimpressed tone, literally looking down on him, capture tape in hand and going at Izuku’s wrists, “As is mine. Maybe now you’ll manage to land a hit uh?”

Izuku knows how that’s going to piss his bully off. He knows this, and he doesn’t care, as angry as he is right now himself, a dark feeling of satisfaction, cursing through him as he sees his bully down on the floor at his feet, powerless and at his mercy.

What he didn’t consider, was what Bakugou was going to do next.

With his own leg sweep from his laying position, Bakugou manages to quickly drop Izuku to the ground, the teen huffing as his ass hits the ground, Bakugou instantly back on his feet, a massive gauntlet aimed, point blank, right at at Izuku’s face, his other hand right on the trigger, their positions suddenly reversed.

“You didn’t want to show me your Quirk all our lives?!” Bakugou says, smile wide and slightly deranged, red eyes focused on him “Fine, maybe it was all just a trick, maybe you cheated and faked a Quirk to get in here, I don’t care!”

“These gauntlets have been storing my nitroglycerine sweat for the entirety of this match,” Bakugou comments with an eerie calm, “Now… what do you think will happen to you when I pull this trigger… Deku?”

Izuku can hear All Might’s booming voice shouting something within Bakugou’s earpiece from there, Izuku attempting to scramble away from him, the teen seemingly ignoring him as his deranged smile simply turns feral, Izuku’s eyes widening as he attempts to prevent the inevitable.

“Kacchan, wait don’t, you don’t know what’d about to-”

“HE WON’T DIE IF HE CAN DODGE!”

He doesn’t even listen Izuku’s pleas as he aims his gauntlet toward him and fires, Izuku barely having the time to summon his Persona, purple card appearing within his hand and disappearing in a flash of blue flame, that he is swallowed by the explosion.

He can hear All Might screaming in his earpiece, as well as several, muffled sounds coming from the same room he is in, and Yaoyorozu’s own startled call, demanding a status report with a concerned tone.

“Don’t worry,” Izuku says, voice barely strained, “I’m fine.”

“Thou art I, and I art Thou”

The world turns to silence as the dust settles, Izuku’s costume, the one his mother made for him with all her love, barely singed, miraculously still intact, right as Bakugou watches on, astounded, as the… short mannequin on wheels, a red drape coming over it, obscuring its “face” while still revealing a pair of shining eyes, stands right in between them.

Right as it’s beginning to grow brightly.

“I am Surya, Creator god of Light, Visible Aspect of the Shining Sun!” The mannequin joyfully bellows in a surprisingly deep voice, “I shall be the pillar of fire that shall shine it’s cleansing light among the evils of this world…”

“Kacchan run!” Izuku says, eyes wide as he realizes what is about to happen, “My Per- My Quirk reflects Fire!”

The persona’s bright, blinding light reaches its apex.

“Now… Begone you foul demon, taste the might of your own flames!”

Bakugou’s eyes grow wide as Surya’s blinding light erupts from within it, right as a torrent of flames erupts off the Persona, reflecting back the explosion Bakugou had just attempted to shoot at Izuku, Bakugou hastily dodging to the side in the narrow corridor, fast enough not to be completely invested by it, but not fast enough.

Bakugou’s cry of pain erupts within the corridor, his left side scorched and burned, tears of pain streaming through his eyes, his costume a mess, yet still standing.

“K-Kacchan!” Izuku yells, suddenly worried, dashing at his childhood friend’s side, the alleyway a mess of debris and dust, the fire having run all the way down of it and erupting against the side of the building, shattering its walls open, “K-Kacchan are you-”

“Stop looking down on me!” Bakugou roars, tears and snot running down his face, as he jumps at his opponent even despite how damaged he is, “Even now, you are looking down on me, thinking I’m a victim, thinking you can save me, like with the slime villain… WELL I AM NO ONE’S VICTIM!”

His right hook this time does connect straight against Izuku’s face, making him fall down on his ass, Quixote’s physical protection now gone with a second Persona present.

Before Bakugou can drop on him for another punch, before he can pass out for the excruciating pain of his own burns, his right hand sparkling, hitching for another explosion, a loud ring erupts within the building.

“TIME’S UP, THE MATCH IS OVER!” All Might Booming voice hastily bellows, the pro hero arriving within seconds on the scene and grabbing at Bakugou, all fight leaving him in an instant with a subtle pressure against his neck.

Izuku can do nothing but stare up at them from his spot on the ground, loudly trying to catch his breath back while under All Might’s unreadable, fake smile.

“VILLAIN TEAM WINS.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, all teams but Izuku's, Bakugou's and Uraraka's were randomly generated by a casual number generator.
> 
> Yet Tsuyu and Tokoyami still, somehow, managed to get paired up together in the same team letter they were in canon.
> 
> God? Philemon? Yaldabaoth? Is that you talking to me?
> 
> Aside from Jester raising from Rank 1 to 2 there is not much changes within the social links today so no social link recap here. Same for social stats.
> 
> Expect next chapter/chapter 8 to come a bit later than the breakneck pace this last 6 chapters have come, I kinda need to do some IRL shit these days till the 22, so there's that.
> 
> Post 22/09 it will be fair game again tho.
> 
> (I try not to, like, depict shit as 1 to 1 as it is in canon, because in that case why the hell are you reading this go read canon, hence me some times glossing over stuff we already do know, like a character full description, or an enviroment description, or some scene or speech that exactly didn't change from canon).


	7. Empress Arcana: Rank I; Star Arcana: Rank I; ??????? Arcana: BROKEN.

“THE MVP OF THE BATTLE WAS YAOYOROZU.”

Izuku, Hagakure and Yaoyorozu are now inside the Analysis room of Training Ground Beta, facing their professor and their classmates, screens on the wall beside them still showing the feed of the cameras all around their previous arena, and the devastated corridor Izuku and Bakugou had just fought in.

Despite his victory, Izuku feels awful, the image of Bakugou, his bully, his childhood friend, collapsing right at the end of their match, Robots whisking him off to the infirmary before he could even think of summoning a Pixie to heal him, burned straight into his retinas, the young man swallowing a thick lump inside his throat.

“NOW, CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN ME WHY IS IT SO? HOW ABOUT YOU YOUNG IIDA?”

“Of course, Mr. All Might Sir!” Iida exclaims, the only one among the lot of them who had actually raised his hand up to answer, “Yaoyorozu was the only one in this exercise who consistently stayed focused on the mission the entire time, using her Quirk at the best of her advantage by effectively fortifying the bomb room in case of an assault. Bakugou was far too motivated by his personal grudge against Midoriya to properly focus on the mission, instantly abandoning his teammate and his task to challenge Midoriya, and using an extremely destructive move while indoors, point blank, and without even properly thinking about the consequences of doing so, or his opponent’s eventual reactions to it. Hagakure, on the other hand, while extremely focused on the mission at hand, was also easily pushed around by her teammate, abandoning him mid fight while they could have easily ganged up on Midoriya, or could have even sneakily captured him while he was distracted with Bakugou. Instead, she made a beeline for the bomb counting on her own invisibility, and while she did in the end manage to get inside the Bomb Room, Yaoyorozu own preparation ultimately caused her downfall.”

“As for Midoriya,” Iida continues, eyes suddenly focused on Izuku, the shorter boy gulping loudly under his friend’s scrutiny, “While his fighting form had allowed him to deal with Bakugou long enough for the time to expire, his own display of excess power indoors could have easily jeopardized the whole mission, even when used in such a defensive way, and that’s without counting he himself abandoning his own teammate in order to pursue his own, petty grudge…”

“Actually, I was the one who made the conscious decision to send Midoriya out,” Yaoyorozu instantly interjects with a firm tone, “During or preparatory time, he mentioned his own history with Bakugou, and we’d decided to capitalize on it by sending him forward as a vanguard to split up the Hero team, so to better deal with them.”

“He was however _also_ supposed to warn me via the earpieces if anything had gone wrong,” Yaoyorozu says, her mouth taking a firm line as she side eyes the green haired boy beside her, Izuku trying to get as small as possible, “By not warning me about the incoming explosion shaking the building, nor the follow up one coming from him, he had allowed to distract me long enough for Hagakure to sneak by the bomb room after she had defused the booby traps around the door. Had it not been for the spikes scattered around the floor sticking on her feet, as well as the darkened room stopping her from properly seeing around, giving me ample time to gather back my wits to properly confront her, Hagakure could have used that moment of distraction to reach the bomb before I could even notice. This, coupled with her own ability of making the best out of such a bad situation, makes me propose her as the actual MVP of the match, rather than me.”

The class owes and awes, a couple whispered “so modest” and “so cool” filling the room alongside one, solitary “so manly,” Izuku giving his teammate a look of surprise, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips as he mutters out an apology to her, barely registering the soft whimper coming to his side, a still completely invisible Hagakure… shifting awkwardly at his side, the soft, clean bandages covering her feet the only thing visible of her.

“You… you are too kind, I didn’t really do anything special,” Hagakure simply mutters, “Can we… can I be excused? My feet are still hurting from the match and I think some itching powder got into the wounds, can I go see recovery girl for a moment?”

“OF COURSE!” All Might booms out, offering the invisible girl a slip of paper, “MIDORIYA, HELP YOUR CLASSMATE TO THE INFIRMARY PLEASE, YOUNG YAOYOROZU WILL FILL YOU BACK IN WITH THE MATCH YOU’RE GOING TO MISS.”

Izuku eyes widen before he nods, the sick feeling into his stomach only worsening as he realizes that this must be All Might trying to “subtly” get him to check on Bakugou’s condition, offering his shoulder to Hagakure, the young woman almost reluctantly draping his arm on it as he supports her out of the room.

They take some tentative steps away, back into one of UA’s corridors, each new step earning a more and more laboured breath off the girl, the two stumbling awkwardly all the way.

“Would you- Would you prefer I used my Quirk on you?” Izuku says after an awkward silence, “One of my Personas can heal minor injuries, I could use it multiple times on you to heal your feet enough to allow you to wa-”

“I’m fine,” Hagakure cuts him out, her voice thick, as if she’s choking on tears, right as she detaches herself from Midoriya and stumbles a couple steps forward by herself “I don’t need my opponent’s help to go to the infirmary!”

“Are you- Are you sure you can walk?” Izuku says, eyes going down to Hagakure’s feet, the bandages, while still clean looking enough, look sticky and drenched with something, leaving wet sounds with each laboured step she takes, and Izuku instantly panics, “Hold on, is that… invisible blood? Crap, we need to call a robot-”

“No!” She yells, a bit louder than Necessary, instantly startling Izuku, “I said I don’t need… don’t need- I- I can do it, I don’t need to be carried, I don’t need your help or your Quirk, I can do this by myself!”

She pushes herself off him, stumbling a couple steps away only to stumble and fall to the ground, Izuku instantly at her side, eyes shining with worry.

“Hagakure are you all right?!”

Izuku, a professional crier himself, didn’t need to see the invisible woman’s face to know she was trying, really hard, not to cry while someone else was present.

“God I’m so pathetic…” Hagakure whimpers, soft sounds coming from her making Izuku assume she was raising herself from the ground, “I almost get expelled the first day for being useless, I can’t even control my own teammate, I get so easily outmanoeuvred by my opponents one of them has to bandage my feet and the other one sees me crying… I don’t deserve to be here…”

“That’s- that’s not true!” Izuku exclaims, instantly kneeling at her side… or at least what he assumed was her side, “You just gotten unlucky these last two days, I’m sure you’ll become a great-”

“Ah, easy for you to say…” Hagakure mutters, her bandaged feet sliding upward on the ground, what soft sounds he could hear making Izuku assuming she must have been started hugging her knees and legs to her chest, “Everyone in our class is so cool, with their flashy Quirks and their incredible motivation, meanwhile I’m just… there, in the background, with a stupid invisibility Quirk that forces me to be naked all the time. Is already a miracle if I managed to pass the entrance exam…”

Izuku’s cheek redden slightly at the mention of Hagakure state of undress, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips, the two of them thankfully alone in the empty corridor of UA.

“Hagakure…”

“Don’t try to make me feel better like Yaoyorozu earlier, I bet you all think this too,” Hagakure shoots back, shutting Izuku up and whimpering softly into herself, “I don’t care if this is just the first 2 days, but if that’s the best I could do today I might as well just quit…”

Izuku stares at the nothing he assumes Hagakure must be, a soft sigh escaping his lips.

“Ok, do it then.” He says, voice eerily calm, earning a gasp from the invisible girl in front of him, “Waste your potential, squander this amazing opportunity and quit UA, don’t become the great hero I KNOW you’ll going to become, it’s not like it’s gona affect anyone here but you.”

“W- What?” Hagakure squeaks out, startled by Izuku sudden words.

“But it is going to affect you, your future and your life.” Izuku keeps going, seemingly on a roll now, “What does it matter if you are on the bottom of out class right now? What does it matter if everyone else has a flashier Quirk than yours? That should only drive you to work harder to achieve your dreams, motivate you to overcome you weaknesses and show us all how much of an amazing hero you are, as you climb you way up all the way to the first place!”

“As- As if I could ever do that…” Hagakure mutters bashfully, “I have a useless, invisibility Quirk, what good can I-”

“You managed to almost get to the bomb today,” Izuku points out, “Had you gone against someone as less prepared as Yaoyorozu, or had you teamed up with someone who was ready to listen to you, or enhance your strengths, then today’s match would have gone way differently.”

“It’s still too early to say anything about our future, but I’m sure, no, I’m certain you could be a fantastic hero Hagakure,” Izuku concludes, a bright smile splitting his face, “You could easily ace any kind of rescue or infiltration operation simply by your ability to be undetected by people! You’ll just have to work hard and believe in yourself as much as I believe in you!”

Silence pervades the corridor, and had it not been for the feet bandages still being there Izuku would have assumed Hagakure had just gotten up and left him then and there, until…

“Ok,” Izuku finally hears, a rush of breath coming out of the girl in front of him, “Ok, fine, I’ll… I’ll try to become the hero you think I will one day become… No, I’m sure I will become it, I’m sure I will overcome my own weaknesses and become the best student in our class, flashy Quirk or not!”

“That’s the spirit!” Izuku says with a cheerful smile, the conversation with the invisible girl managing to lift his own spirits’ up from his previous funk, “And I’m going to help you every step of the way!”

Izuku’s eyes widen at his own proposal as a red blush spreads over his cheeks, a quiet meep coming out of the invisible girl in front of him.

“God Midoriya, you’re making me blush…” Hagakure mutters, turning bashful all of a sudden, “Ok, I’ll… I’ll take your word for it as long as you don’t slack off your own, we can’t have my friend fall down the ranks right as I reach him to the top now, can’t we?”

Friend. The word sends warm flutters down Izuku’s stomach, a feeling of contentment washing over him, right as time slows to a crawl.

**“I am Thou, and Thou art I…”**

A card, spinning wildly around, appears between Izuku and the nothing Hagakure should be, a bright, shining figure under a starry sky holding two cups in each hand, one damaged and broken, the other shining and filled with water, a bold XVII written right beneath it.

**“Thou have forged a New Bond… It shall bring thou closer to your dreams…”**

The card shines, revealing its first Rank of I, right as the voice slowly fades away with its last line, a feeling of warmth overcoming Izuku as the card slowly sinks deep within his chest.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Star Arcana.”**

Time crawls back to its proper pace, Izuku shaking his head from side to side to dispel the feeling sinking deep within him.

“I think I’ll take that offer of someone carrying me to the nurse’s office now” Hagakure interjects, some discomfort seeping into her voice, “My feet are killing me, and these floors are surprisingly cold you know, I’m freezing my butt off here…”

Izuku’s cheeks instantly take on a virulently red shade, the boy wordlessly getting back up on his feet, his voice stammering out as he once again remembered the state of undress of the girl at his side.

“I’m not saying you were going to be the one carrying me you know,” Hagakure points out with a chuckle, Izuku’s blush only brightening in the process, “You are a nice and all, but honestly? You look like the world’s shortest bunny-man, do you even lift Midoriya?”

Izuku doesn’t even have the time to feel embarrassed or peeved out by Hagakure’s insinuation, especially when he did, in fact, lift, thank you very much, that his natural desire for helping those in need easily overpowers his own embarrassment, his mind already patching up the perfect course of action to carry the wounded girl to the school infirmary with the maximum comfort.

“Ok... Ok hold on, I still have a way to help you with that,” Izuku says, one pale blue card already in hand, “Persona!”

And the corridor is blinded by angelic light.

* * *

Izuku had decided to deliver the Invisible Girl to the nurse’s office with the help of one, androgynous blonde Angel, the girl princess carried by their surprisingly strong arms, only a couple, solitary whimpers coming off of her as she kept wiggling in its grasp, the sound of hands covering over what Izuku was pretty sure now happened to be red cheeks accompanying them all the way there.

Recovery Girl had taken their arrival in stride, instantly letting the Angel place Hagakure on one of the spare beds in her infirmary, one kiss already placed on the crown of her head, followed by an offer of gummy bears.

Bakugou was currently passed out, Izuku… not really knowing how to feel about it, no scar visible from his previous encounter with Izuku’s persona.

Having finally checked on his former childhood friend’s condition, a weight finally lifted off Izuku’s mind right as he left a now distinctly more cheered up Hagakure to the capable care of Recovery Girl, hastily power walking back to Training Ground Beta.

* * *

Izuku managed to arrive just in time for the end of the second match.

On screen, Tokoyami and his dark shadow are currently battling against Sero and Jiro in the corridor outside their Bomb Room, Asui currently impotently taped to the above ceiling, captured. Dark shadow manages to make a lunge at Sero as he unleashes another tape attack, the shadowy creature’s “body” barely contained by it before it breaks free, right as Jiro’s headphone jack tangles at Tokoyami’s feet, snagging at his leg and throwing him on the ground.

“How’s Hagakure?” Yaoyorozu says as Izuku manages to find his empty seat next to his teammate, barely giving him a side-glance as she keeps staring at the screen in front of them.

“She’s… she’s fine, Recovery Girl wanted her to stay in the infirmary for a while to check for eventual infections” Izuku stammers out, right as Dark Shadow lunges back toward Jiro, headphone jacks fruitlessly stabbing into it and unleashing a sonic wave, the creature seemingly stumbling but continuing to claw at Jiro, Tokoyami stumbling back to his feet right as Sero drops behind him.

“Mmmmm, really makes you think,” Yaoyorozu hums pensively, her eyes never leaving the screen even as she whispers to Izuku, “Yours and Tokoyami’s Quirks are really similar, how come you didn’t use it during our own match till the end? We could have finished it all sooner had you turned it in a 2 VS 1 duel on your favour without the need to have one of you almost kill the other.”

Izuku bristles under the sudden attention, some other students in the group staring back at him, All Might’s eyes fixed on the screens in front of him as he announces the victory for the Villains, Tokoyami’s hands trapped by Sero and his tape, strapping him on the floor.

“W- Well…” Izuku begins stammering, trying to look as small as possible, “My… My quirk depletes my Stamina with each new… super move I perform, which makes prolonged uses difficult, and unlike Dark Shadow there, Quixote… That’s the Knight on the horse by the way- Anyway… unlike Tokoyami’s quirk Quixote, like you said before, doesn’t have the best manoeuvrability, especially in such enclosed spaces, which meant I could only… face Bakugou with my own strength, and had to call off Quixote right after he casted Sukukaja on me…”

“Suku- What?” One of his classmates, Kaminari, asks loudly, directing even more attention toward him, “What’s that?”

“It’s… it’s the name of one of Quixote’s abilities,” Izuku says, cheeks reddening slightly as he looks down on the ground, averting his eyes from everyone, “He can basically make anything he targets… really good at dodging. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just that whoever gets affected by it can’t be hit till

“Oh, so that’s how you managed to make all those cool dodges!” Another classmate, Ashido Mina, interjects with a cheery smile, “Man, you were slipping all around him, that was so freaking cool-”

“Wait, but the… thing you called out at the end wasn’t that knight,” Another student, Kirishima, points out with a frown, “What gives dude?”

“AS MUCH AS I’M SURE YOU ALL WANT TO CONGRATULATE AND/OR BERATE YOUNG MIDORIYA OVER HIS WHIRLWIND VICTORY,” All Might’s booming voice bellows within the small room, the students’ attention snapping back to him, “I AM HERE TO REMIND YOU THAT THIS IS A LESSON, AND YOU SHOULD ALL OWE YOUR FELLOW CLASSMATES YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION TO THEIR MATCHES AS MUCH AS YOU DID TO YOUNG MIDORIYA’S AND YOUNG BAKUGOU’S. SO, WHO WAS THE MVP IN THIS MATCH? YES, YOUNG YAOYOROZU?”

“Yes. While all the four of them sported some decent teamwork with each other, Sero was the one who ultimately managed to capture both of the Heroes in this exercise, even if helped greatly by Jiro managing to spot their trajectory inside the building and plan an ambush accordingly, taking Asui out before they could properly regroup and removing the 3 V 2 Advantage the Hero team would have had thanks to Dark Shadow.”

“Those small fries just got lucky,” _Something_ grumbles from within Tokoyami’s cloak, promptly shushed out by its owner.

“YES, ELOQUENTLY SAID YOUNG YAOYOROZU.” All Might booms out, “AND NOW, FOR THE NEXT MATCH…”

* * *

On the third match, Kirishima and Koda of Team C will have to capture the bomb from Izuku’s good friends Uraraka and Iida from Team E.

Things get… weird.

“What… what are they doing?” Yaoyorozu mutters under her breath, eyes squinting as she peers at the screens in front of her, specifically the one depicting the villain hideout for the bomb, where Izuku can see Iida bringing as much rubble and broken furniture from the other room inside it, as Uraraka keeps laughing and rolling to the floor in absolute hysterics.

“Ah, shame we don’t have any audio,” Ashido complains loudly, “It seems they’re having fun.”

“We’re not here to have fun,” Yaoyorozu instantly cuts in, “This is a Hero University, the top one in the country, we are here to learn and grow as defenders of peace, not… have fun.”

“I wasn’t expecting much from Uraraka, but honestly? Iida greatly disappointed me here,” She says, voice taking that perfect inflection only mothers or schoolteachers could get when they were scolding someone, “They are not taking this seriously in the slightest.”

“Oh, I think Iida is taking it way more seriously than we’re giving him credit for,” Izuku points out with a frown, suddenly getting very defensive of his friends, “And Uraraka is probably just affected by her nerves, I’m sure when the time is right, she’ll amaze all of us, I just know it.”

The match officially starts, Iida posing in the middle of the room, seemingly monologuing himself right as Uraraka tries to get a grip on herself, Kirishima rushing in the front door, closely followed by Koda.

It doesn’t take long for the hero team to reach the bomb’s hideout, Uraraka, her head seemingly back in the game, instantly tagging all the stuff currently at hand and throwing it at Kirishima, the rubble and broken desks breaking fruitlessly against his hardened body, even as Iida charges at him, the two clashing right in the middle of the room, Koda meekly hiding behind the smaller boy’s frame, whispering… _something_.

Uraraka grabs at another broken desk, only for a swarm of insects to come out of it, starting to crawl all over her arm. She is nonplussed, even as she winces slightly at the sudden bites on her skin-tight suit, Iida quickly dodging out of the way as the desk crashes once again against Kirishima, aimed straight at his face.

This momentarily blinds the young man, Iida using this fraction of a second to his advantage to give an overpowered kick against the nearby wall, caving it in and bursting it open, allowing him to slip past his guard and charge at Koda, surprisingly able to simply pick him up and carrying him away from the room.

Kirishima says… something Izuku can’t hear as he yells back at Iida’s retreating form, his attention fatally lost as Uraraka launches herself at him, suddenly weightless, tagging him on the back.

As Kirishima impotently floats in mid-air, Uraraka hastily produces her own capture tape, trapping his hands within, right as Iida does the same to Koda, even as ants start crawling all around his armour.

All Might announces the end of the fight, right as Uraraka annuls her Quirk and drops back on her knees, vomiting rainbows on the ground, Kirishima suddenly at her side and fretting over her.

* * *

“The MVP of this match was Iida,” Yaoyorozu gave her judgement, completely ignoring All Might’s own input as she did so, a firm, confident smile on her face, “He managed to prepare the ground for his teammate, and easily took out one of the enemies, creating a moment of opportunity for his teammate to capitalize on once Kirishima got distracted. As for the hero team, Kirishima was far too brash, opting for a full-frontal attack without even scouting the room, while Koda was too submissive to him, even with his Quirk so penalized by the lack of wildlife in the building.”

Iida, who would normally accept such compliments with a stiff pose and a ramrod straight back, is currently too busy freaking out, some stray ants still crawling all over him, Uraraka, Koda and Kirishima helping him out.

“OH GOD I CAN FEEL THEM IN PLACES I NEVER EVEN KNEW I HAD!”

* * *

Next Match, Team J, featuring Shoji and Sato as heroes, vs Team I, Featuring Shinso and Kaminari as Villains.

Shinso… didn’t seem all to eager to play the part of the villain as he reluctantly positioned himself inside his own bomb room with Kaminari, the blonde boy peering outside the windows. Some words are exchanged between the two, and Izuku isn’t even sure if Shinso is currently using his quirk on Kaminari or not, especially not without Audio, right as All Might’s voice announces the start of the exercise.

Shinso instantly comes out of the room, leaving Kaminari behind, Shinso leading the charge, Shoji’s enhanced hearing seemingly allowing him to pick up on his position instantly, the two giants stomping their way inside the building.

And then…

Izuku… doesn’t understand what is happening at first. One second, Shoji and Sato are making their way upwards, the second, one of Shoji’s mouths says something to Sato, the young man turning toward his teammate in confusion, right as Shoji freezes up for one, long second, before throwing himself toward Sato.

Everyone gasps as the two teammates fight against each other, Sato trying to dodge and block the other’s blows as best as he can, trying not to hurt his teammate.

“What is going on, why are they fighting?” Ashido wonders out loud, eyes wide with shock, right as Realization strikes Izuku.

“This must be Shinso’s Quirk!” He exclaims, attracting everyone’s attention to him, “Shoji’s quirk allows him to hear everything everywhere, right? Shinso probably knew this, so all he needed to do, was make some noise to attract it toward himself, and then formulate a question to trigger it. But why did Shoji even answer to his opponent from miles away?”

“Mmmmm, maybe the support item he is wearing on his mouth allows him to disguise his voice, that would allow him to properly disrupt the enemy team communications by posing as someone else, forcing them to remain silent and not exchange any sort of information with each other” Yaoyorozu points out, a small smirk appearing on her lips as she eyes Izuku pensively, “Still, this is also preying on Sato’s unwillingness to hurt his partner, making them waste precious time and allowing him to become a sitting duck for- Exactly that.”

A now within earshot Shinso appears in the corridor, the device on his mouth whirring as Sato says something to Shoji, his own eyes going blank.

The two teammates stop, each taking their own capture tape and cuff themselves, ending the exercise on the spot.

“Brains over Brawn,” Yaoyorozu simply says, as Shoji and Sato blink back into consciousness.

* * *

“I’d say Shinso was the MVP this match,” Izuku says before Yaoyorozu could once again be the one on the spotlight, the taller woman looking slightly miffed at that, “But that’s because no one else was allowed to do anything by him, granting him complete control over everyone in the match.”

“I couldn’t even do anything cool…” Kaminari pouts from his side, earning an eyeroll from his teammate and a soft pat to the back by Sato.

* * *

Last Match, Aoyama and Todoroki as heroes, vs Ojiro and Ashido as Villains.

“Man, only villains have been managed to win till now,” Kirishima complains loudly as Ojiro and Ashido discuss a plan of defence inside their bomb room, “That’s so unmanly…”

Yaoyorozu hums loudly, brow creasing in deep thought as she attracts everyone else’s attention to her, right as All Might gives the signal for the start of the match.

“I’m not sure that winning streak for the villains is going to last,” She says, eyes focused on the screens, hands clasped in front of her mouth…

Right as Todoroki, completely ignoring his teammate as he poses to the cameras all around him, unleashes a wave of ice onward, freezing the building whole.

* * *

“Maaaan, that was intense!” Ashido comments with a carefree grin, “One second me and Tail-Boy are strategizing, the next we are already up to our feet into Ice and here comes Todoroki here without a care in the world securing the objective. You’re da Man Todoroki!”

“Whatever,” Da man in question mutters with a shrug, defiantly ignoring his classmates as he snacks on his self-made soba in the dorm’s kitchen space, Ashido and Aoyama stuck at his sides.

“Oh, _non non non_ , he wasn’t “Da Man” at all!” Aoyama dramatically says, the back of his hand going to his brow, “He didn’t let _le me_ display my great and magnificent powers in today’s mission, and I that had readied my poor belly exactly for the occasion!”

Stuck between a twinkling rock and an overexcited hard place, Todoroki can’t help but groan silently, concentrating more and more on his Soba, earning a small, pitying chuckle from Midoriya as he brough in two more plates,

“Here’s your Katsudon Hagakure,” Midoriya says with a small smile, offering the dish to a fortunately now clothed and healed up Hagakure, who cheerfully accepts the offered dish, “It’s my mother’s recipe, and it’s perfect to cheer yourself up during… rainy days.”

“Thank you Midoriya,” Hagakure replies with a chirp, cheerfully wiggling her body around to better convey her emotions due to the lack of a face, “I appreciate it.”

“Green!” Ashido exclaims as she notices him, startling Izuku with the unexpected Nickname right as she and Aoyama redirect their focus from Todoroki, who finally manages to relax his shoulders by a tiny margin as he’s finally left virtually alone to enjoy his Soba, “Just the man I was looking for, what was that about the cool power that lets you dodge like a boss? Can you show me more? Uh Uh, even better, can you do it on me?”

“I… I don’t know Ashido, I never had the time to test it on other people…” Izuku says with a frown, scratching his scalp in confusion, “Did you really liked how I dodged Ka- Bakugou today that much?”

“Uh uh, it was next level!” Ashido says with an almost manic grin, far to excited than humanly possible for something as simple as Izuku managing not to get hit by a fist or two “Come on, do me! I want to be able to slide around the room while you and the others try to take me down, is going to be awesome!”

“I… I don’t think we’re allowed to use our Quirks in the dorms for such petty reasons…” Izuku nervously says, cheeks slightly reddening, earning a sad pout from his pink skinned classmate as a result, “I wouldn’t want none of us get expelled the second day of school after all…”

“Mmmm, still _Mon Ami_ …” Aoyama interjects with a enigmatic smile, “The more we know you, the more of a mystery your Quirk becomes, especially after today’s dazzling performance! You at least owe us an explanation on your Quirk, especially after all the… questions you’ve asked us about our own powers. Is it only fair is it, _oui_?”

“I… I guess that’s fair,” Izuku says, his words getting the attention of a couple more people in the room, “Ok, so… maybe not everyone here knows that my power started manifesting… just one year ago? Before then I was considered Quirkless by the National Quirk Registry-”

“What? No way!” Ashido exclaims, one hand slapping Todoroki on the back and almost making him drop his soba, the pink skinned girl completely ignoring his glare, “That’s just, like, genetically impossible, you can’t develop a Quirk after you’re 4 years of age.”

“Eh eh, yeah, that’s what the doctors also said…” Izuku says with a nervous chuckle, trying really hard to work around all the legal technicalities of what he could and could not say, as well as the secret of One for All, “Everyone’s best guess is that I always had a Quirk, but I simply couldn’t… Properly channel it yet, so they mistakenly labelled me as Quirkless.”

Izuku takes out one, deep breath, before extending his hand out in front of him.

“My Quirk is called Persona,” Izuku says, the word making the 5 personas in his arsenal appear in his hands in a flash of blue fire, much to the amazement of his classmates, “It’s also its trigger word, even if it needs intent behind each triggering, so I don’t accidentally summon something when I’m talking about it. it’s somewhat of a combination between Yaoyorozu’s Quirk and Tokoyami, in the sense my body produces these… cards here, and I can use them to summon the creature depicted in it, one at a time, forging a temporary bond with them.”

Izuku places the five cards on the table in front of him, face up, a small crowd now gathered around the Kitchen Counter.

“Oh oh, here’s everyone’s second favourite knight in twinkling armour!” Aoyama comments, spotting Quixote’s card on the table, “How awful, this art definitely doesn’t render his magnificence justice!”

“As Aoyama said, this is Quixote, he’s the first… creature I managed to get, around a year ago.” Izuku begins explaining, the easy territory of Quirk Analysis allowing him not to freak out too much over the sudden stares, “He’s the one I’ve used the most till now, so he’s the one I can control the most. You see these words here? Those are his resistances and weaknesses. As I said, I am permanently… bonded with the last persona I summoned, meaning I too have those weaknesses and strength on my own body, if weakened, only managing to reach their full potential when the actual Persona is out.”

“What about the one you used in your fight against Bakugou?” Ashido asks with a frown, her eyes scanning the cards on the table only to land on Surya, “Here it is- Wow that’s a lot of words on this one! How come is it so different from the previous one?”

“Yeah, That’s probably due to the colour of each card depicts their… category I’d call it,” Izuku says, not even skipping a beat, “For example, I have two Pixies here, but they are both separate entities with slightly different powers, personalities and resistances, because one is a Red Pixie and the other is Yellow Pixie. In fact, they both claim to know one another and be sisters, mentioning also the existence of other versions of them out there for me to… Collect I guess?”

“Oh, so they are as sentient as my Dark Shadow then,” Tokoyami grumbles from his perch on his study table, Izuku craning his neck toward him and Asui, the two also seemingly listening in their conversation, “I did wonder where do our similarities start and end Midoriya, are you perhaps also plagued by the calls and whims of your gift?”

“Feed me the souls of the innocents…” Dark shadows grumbles in response from beneath the study table, a black aura oozing off of it, darkening the area around it, shuffling around it like the world most murderous housecat “… And also Chicken Nuggets.”

“I’m… not sure really…” Izuku says with a frown, never really having thought about it, “They haven’t asked anything from me yet, most of them just follow what I tell them to do, heck, Quixote can’t even talk… Then again, keep in mind I have most of those cards only in the last year, they aren’t that strong yet, and I haven’t really got to properly experiment with most of them…”

“Then how did you manage to unleash such a powerful fire attack on Bakugou during your match?” Todoroki cuts in, expression unreadable as he stares straight at Izuku, “It almost looked like your… Persona ate up Bakugou’s massive explosion before unleashing its own devastating attack on him.”

“Yeah, that was, like, totally Overkill dude, so Unmanly!” Kirishima yells from all the way to the Television area of the common room, having apparently used Jiro as a method to eavesdrop on them alongside Kaminari.

“Oh, that wasn’t actually an ability per se…” Izuku says, suddenly bashful under the continued attention, grabbing back Surya’s card from Mina, who had at the time decided to squash it against Quixote’s own card while making kissy noises with her mouth, “See here among the stats? Under the fire element, it counts the ability to Reflect it, it means this persona can store up any sort of fire attack directed at herself or me, at least if they are summoned of course. I had originally planned to keep it as a countermeasure in case my dodging and strategy couldn’t suffice, my resistance, while weakened without the persona out, still allowing me to easily shrug off most damage, Although I… I never would have expected him to unleash such a powerful explosion in such close ranges-”

“He brought it upon himself then,” Todoroki cuts in, his tone neutral, his eyes fixed on Izuku’s card “Such a… Versatile Quirk, capable of essentially countering… everything as long as you knew about their weaknesses and strengths… I wonder… what length have people gone through for you to achieve this power? And how have you managed to… Collect, as you said, these kinds of creatures for your service?”

“Well, I… I’m not s-sure really…” Izuku stammers out, eyes going to the Velvet Room’s door currently sitting innocently in their dorm room, completely invisible to everyone but him, “Pixie, the red one, I’ve got her during the entrance exam for example, found the card on the ground and all, while Quixote just manifested when-”

The doors of the dorms blast open, revealing one Bakugou Katsuki, some bandaged covering his left cheek and arm, as he stomps his way inside, instantly joined by a fretful Kirishima.

“Dude, are you alright-”

Bakugou completely ignores him, stomping his own way toward Izuku, the young man slowly gulping at the sight of the… blank look on Bakugou’s face, as he stomps his way toward Izuku.

“Ah, le return of the exploding hero!” Aoyama instantly exclaims, pirouetting his way in between Bakugou and Izuku, one hand going to his shoulder, “Tell me _mon ami_ , are you here to be bedazzled by my twinkling rad-”

“Move that hand in the next 5 seconds or you’re gona find yourself missing some fingers soon.”

Aoyama blanches at the eerily calm tone the threat was just uttered in, the flamboyant boy hastily making way for Bakugou as he pirouettes to the side, leaving Izuku to his fate.

“I am hopped up on some bullshit Quirk enhanced painkillers right now,” Bakugou comments in a serene tone as he finally reaches the table, Ashido instantly scrambling away from it and retreating to a safe distance away, “But even then, I’d like you to know that I am ABSOLUTELY LIVID… Deku.”

Izuku gulps, his eyes shooting back at Todoroki, who on his part had decided to ignore the whole debacle and returned eating at his Soba.

“Not only I’ve managed to get absolutely trashed by a useless loser like you, but you then decided to humiliate me by turning my own power against myself.” Bakugou keeps on enunciating, his voice and tone never raising nor getting altered, “You, who were supposed to be just another step in my path to greatness, managed to hurt me using my own. FUCKING. Quirk.”

“K- Kacchan look…”

“I will destroy you.” Bakugou simply says, a bright, large smile on his face, almost sounding joyful, “I will become stronger, stronger than ever before, stronger than even All Might, and I will absolutely decimate your sorry excuse of the Quirk you lied all your life about.”

“K- Kacchan if you let me explain-”

“No, I don’t care.” Bakugou interrupts him, his eerily serene tone cracking, just a little, “You told me yourself. Why the hell would you tell anything about your Quirk to me? We are nothing to each other, or at least we were nothing to each other, but now?”

A fire appears behind Bakugou’s eyes as he glares at Izuku, the young boy shrinking slightly under it.

“Now we are enemies.” Bakugou, bright smile contrasting with furious eyes, one hand going to Izuku’s shoulder and squeezing, gently, the tell-tale pop of would be explosion resonating in his hears as he freezes, “So you better watch your back, because next time we fight? I won’t be the one leaving on a stretcher, you useless. Shitty. Deku.”

Bakugou doesn’t explode him there and there, fortunately, leaving soon after, bright smile still in place, Ashido scrambling out of her way, Izuku staring at his back as he goes.

A sick feeling grows within Izuku’s stomach, the boy feeling awful as his childhood friend, his bully, his tormentor, Bakugou shreds that little, stupid hope he still had of… anything, everything, them, getting back how things once were.

Time slows to a crawl.

 _“No way…”_ Izuku thinks as everything in the living room stops, _“No way this gets me a social link, no way this is the start of our bond…”_

And he’s right.

This is not the start of their bond.

One card comes out of Izuku’s chest.

It’s burnt, torn apart and barely kept together by tape, fractured and almost illegible, the image within it grainy and unfocused, the roman number beneath scratched out and erased.

The card spins in front of Izuku slowly, melancholically, before it stops, a bright light erupting from all around it, from the cracks and the tears within it, blinding Izuku.

**“Some Bonds can never be Mended…”**

The voice bellows, sounding more sombre than Izuku had ever heard him before, right as the Card shatters, explodes into countless of particles of light, dispersing each in the air, as if it was never there.

**“Some People can never be saved…”**

Time, slowly, starts to return to its proper pace, some tears pooling at the corner of Izuku’s eyes as he realizes the implications of what just happened, right as the voice gives out one, last sentence.

**“Thou best be remembering this, child.”**

* * *

It’s the day after their first Basic Hero Training lesson, and the students of class 1-A are about to face their biggest challenge yet.

“I’ve looked over the recordings of yesterday’s hero training.”

The class quiets down in an instant, Aizawa Shoto, the pro hero Eraserhead, their Homeroom Teacher, giving the lot of them one, unimpressed look, his gaze sweeping over each of his students.

“They happened to be… acceptable.”

Everyone takes a collective breath I relief, right as Aizawa begins assessing each of their individual performances.

“Bakugou, you have great potential, but you are wasting it on petty rivalries and childish games.” Aizawa points out with a drawl, “Also, please, for the love of god, try not to murder a fellow student the very second day of school only to then almost get murdered yourself in the process, you have no idea the amount of paperwork that would have forced us to fill.”

Bakugou only grunts in response, Midoriya trying to hide himself behind his back, nerves wrecking him, as Aizawa moves his gaze toward him.

“As for you, Midoriya,” He begins, Izuku startling at the sudden even if expected attention, his back now ramrod straight, “from what I could see, you have an incredibly versatile power, but you should also learn how to properly control what output you manage to pull with it, least you did end up actually injuring someone for good.”

Izuku nods stiffly at his professor words, only earning a raised eyebrow and a couple chuckles from his classmates in response.

“Also your costume is definitely Hero Commission approved,” Aizawa drawls on, “You will need to go to the support department later during the week and start commissioning something appropriate for hero work, otherwise you’ll be forced to wear the University gym uniform as a costume for the remaining 3 years here, or, god forbid, practice heroics while naked.”

Izuku’s cheeks flush at his professor words, all tension leaving his body as his attention shifts away from him, Izuku deflating instantly in his seat.

“Shinso, your greatest strength comes from when your enemy doesn’t know about your power nor your support item,” Aizawa continues with his grading without skipping a beat, “If you wish to go through the hassle and become a popular hero, you will need to improve on your physical abilities for when your Quirk will fail you, or you should also go to the support course alongside Midoriya to commission some sort of support device to aid you in battle if things go south.”

Shinso only grumbles something in response, Izuku briefly, irrationally wondering who between himself, Aizawa and Shinso was currently sporting the darkest eyebags, before Aizawa ends his impromptu grading, his gaze snapping back to the class as a whole.

“And now, you will all have to take a decision that will change your entire life here in UA,” Aizawa grumbles darkly, everyone’s eyes widening, their breaths caught, as they eagerly wait for Aizawa’s announcement.

Only to instantly fire up his next words.

“You have to choose a student representative and its vice.”

* * *

Democracy is a cruel mistress.

Izuku is made cruelly aware of this fact, as he finds himself face to face with Yaoyorozu Momo, the two of them having got a collective 8 votes into two people, 4 for each of them, as they decide among themselves, right outside their classroom’s door, their new mansions for the 3 years of university that await them.

This is not the worst situation Izuku has ever been in in all his life, but damn if it doesn’t suck.

“I… I didn’t even want to be here!” Izuku whisper shouts the second they are behind the door, “I can’t be a student rep, we should hold a second election and-”

“Midoriya.” Yaoyorozu firmly says, her mouth taking a serious, thin line, “Our classmates have spoken, marking us as their best choices among our class’ students, we should honour their decision with tact and dignity.”

“I’m not sure “tact and dignity” are really possible for me.” Izuku mutters under his breath, slightly beginning to vibrate as he panics, his brain going a mile a minute, his mouth following closely behind, “I’m- I’m not a leader, I’m not really that good with people either, I messed up our battle training and almost got Kacchan killed and now I’m his sworn enemy or something, and even then I’m not good enough, oh god what if this is just a prank, or I grow mad with power and they decide I’m an awful class rep and they end up guillotining me! I can’t have my head chopped off I need it for-”

“Midoriya.” She repeats, voice calm, firm, authoritative, her hands going to his shoulder and steading him, his wide eyes instantly snapping on her as she leans down, imperceptibly, staring straight at him, “Calm down and slow down your breathing. You are panicking over catastrophises that haven’t even happened yet and will never happen to you, you need to focus and think rationally about all of this for me? Follow my breathing, one deep breath in, one deep breath out, come on, do it for me.”

Izuku, his breath having gotten significantly shorter and faster than he expected, simply nods, focusing on Yaoyorozu’s own deep, continued breathing, the motion progressively calming the young man down.

“There, do you feel better?” Yaoyorozu says with a small smile.

“See, this is why you should be here and I shouldn’t,” Izuku says, a deep red overtaking his cheeks as he averts his eyes from her, a pout coming to his lips, “ That’s why I voted for you after all.”

“And I thank you for that Midoriya, I promise you not to break your trust in me” Yaoyorozu doesn’t even skip a bit as she gives him a winning smile, “As of now, however, we need to decide over who gets to become president between the two of us.”

“Well, I Guess that means you are Class President and I’m your Vice-president then…” Izuku ponders after a while, breaths calm and steady, “I mean, I did vote for you after all, and you are by far the better candidate between each of us, given how… charismatic and good with crowds you are…”

“Mmmmm, are you sure about that?” Yaoyorozu says with a pensive frown, “Because I admit, I don’t really know you Midoriya, but from what I could see from our time here, you are far better with people than you give yourself credit for. After all, you did cheer Hagakure up after her loss to us, and while you did indeed… mess up on our battle training yesterday, the reasoning you gave for your actions was sound… If flawed. I’d think you’d make a better Class President than you think, you have both the Knowledge and the Understanding to do so after all, or I wouldn’t have voted for you otherwise…”

Izuku gulps at the sudden reveal, his cheeks growing a brighter shade of red as he stares up at her, wide eyed, a small smirk appearing on her lips.

“Still, civil service has been passed down my family for generations even before the Dawn of Quirks,” She points out, her smile turning a smidge smug, “Why, some of my ancestors were among Japan’s top public prosecutors and civil defendants over the years, I am therefore morally and dynastically obliged to accept the role of Class President, a role I’m sure I will excel at as long as you will be there by my side as my vice.”

Izuku gulps at the taller woman’s words, a myriad of thoughts swarming through his mind.

Whatever he he was about to say to her, however, dies in his mouth, as time slows down to a crawl.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

A card appears right in between Izuku and Yaoyorozu, spinning wildly around, a bright light shining around it as it stop, revealing its large, bold III and its current rank of 1, as well as the large image, of a crowned woman wearing a black corset sitting atop a naked, masked man on all fours, a leash in her right hand, connected to the man’s collar, a large sceptre in her other hand.

**“Thou have forged a new bond… It shall bring thou closer to your dreams…”**

Izuku blushes brightly at the suggestive image, right as the voice’s words keep on going in their usual chant, right as the card sinks inside Izuku’s chest, a feeling of warmth spreading within him.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Empress Arcana.”**

Izuku blinks, his eyes once again falling on Yaoyorozu’s confident smile, right as time crawls back to its proper pace, new words arriving to his mouth, in light of his new bond.

“O- Ok…” He finally stammers out with a nod, a pleased smile passing through Yaoyorozu’s face, “I’ll… I’ll be your Vice-President then, let’s get inside and tell the others before-”

The lunch bell rings, the door opening to reveal Aizawa already back in his sleeping back, hopping away from the class toward the teachers’ lounge, without even giving his student a side-glance.

Yaoyorozu hums pensively at the sight, “Well, unless something completely unexpected happens, I guess we’ll need to wait till after lunch to do our announcement over our roles.”

“Yeah…”Izuku says, a frown aimed at the professor’s retreating back, right as their fellow classmates started coming out in the corridor, Izuku and Yaoyorozu roped toward the cafeteria with their respective friend groups, barely having the time to say goodbye to one another.

* * *

In his office inside the UA main campus, Nedzu his taking his tea.

He hums contentedly, the rodent sporting not a single care in the world, as he peers down his window toward the newly reinforced gates of UA, as well as its state of the art defence mechanism, all upgraded and funded by the Hero Commission itself, all for the safety of his student of course.

A small hum of satisfaction escapes the rodent’s lips, as yet another lousy journalist attempts to get near the barred gates, one hand pressing against the metal only for a non-lethal, incapacitating electric shock current to do its job, and incapacitate it on the spot.

He hums contentedly at the sight, a small, satisfied smirk gracing his rodent-like features as the crowd of journalists finally stops on their fruitless endeavour, leaving the now empty gates of UA alone to their own devices.

“Ah, the wonders of modern technology.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The USJ, coming next, will take a bit more time, especially given the IRL Stuff I Mentioned earlier, so see each other past 22/09+.
> 
> Comments are, as always, extremely appreciated.


	8. Story Event: The USJ Incident, Part 1

Rescue Training.

The staple of every self-respecting hero course out there, teaching its pupils the true basics of Heroism, testing them on the fundamentals of the profession, not anymore grading them on their effective capability of harming another human being, but on their ability to save and protect them instead, all in protected, state approved simulation facilities for them to use as training grounds.

And UA, top hero academy in the country as it was, could obviously count among its merits some the best simulation facilities in the country, state of the art training grounds capable to simulate any sort of disaster scenarios in safe, controlled environments.

And is toward one of said facilities, that Class 1-A is directed right now, sitting tightly on their school mandated Bus, idly chatting by, all the while low-key bullying Bakugou due to his terrible personality.

Izuku is wearing a UA Gym Uniform, still having to get to the support department for designing a “proper,” Hero Commission approved costume, following all the standards of aerodynamicity, safety, as well as potential marketability for future action figures and other such merch, while most of his classmates had simply foregone some of the more cumbersome parts of their costumes, least they got in the way of the rescue training.

And, of course, since Izuku is in the room, and these are still hero students we are talking about, the conversation soon turns onto Quirk.

“Oh man, your Quirk is so cool Midoriya!” Kirishima whines, startling Midoriya with the sudden praise as he hardens one of his arms, “Not like mine! I mean, yeah this is fine in battles and all, but it gets really boring after a while, meanwhile you have so many cool monsters to choose from!”

“I- I mean… I don’t think you’re Quirk is all that bad Kirishima…” Izuku says, cheeks growing red and shaking his hands from side to side, “I actually think it’s a really neat Quirk, one that will easily allow you to become a great Pro one day…”

“Oh, but to become a pro, one needs to have a certain… _Je ne se quoi_ , something that allows him to really make it big _non,_ to steal the attention and the hearts of the people around us!” Aoyama smugly interjects, a devious smirk on his face “Look at my Quirk, so twinkly and flashy, I shall be climbing up the popularity charts in no time thanks to it!”

“If your stomach doesn’t explode first of course!” Ashido replies with a sly grin, slapping the back of the blonde boy next to her, earning a barely concealed glare in return.

“Still, Midoriya, your Quirk really is versatile kero…” Asui comments at Midoriya’s left, head turning towards him, large, unblinking eyes staring deep within his soul, a nervous chuckle escaping the boy’s lips at the sudden scrutiny, “Making you capable to outright nullify certain attacks, allowing you to quickly react to any sort of situation in no time, you’ll sure become a pro hero in no time if you keep at it, kero.”

“You… you really think I’m going to be… a great hero one day, Asui?” Izuku says, suddenly bashful, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks.

“No.” Asui says, her tone monotone and her face inexpressive, breaking Izuku’s dreams as if they were made of glass, “Your Quirk might be powerful, but as Aoyama said, pro heroes require to check all a series of marks in order to really climb the hero chart kero. Your fashion sense is a disaster, you scare easily, are bad with crowds, your Personas tend to do all the work for you, and from what I could see, you are far too trusting of everyone around you. The hero world will eat you up and spit you out faster than you can say Plus Ultra if you keep going this way, Kero… But at least you’ll be a fairly decent hero while it lasted Kero.”

“That’s- That’s a lot to take in Asui…” Izuku stammers out with another nervous chuckle, shrinking into himself under the sudden criticism, “How do you-”

“I simply am more observant than people give me credit for, Midoriya Kero,” Tsuyu replies, one finger coming to her chin as she tilts her head to the side, “I just notice things, kero, it’s in my nature as a frog Kero.”

“And please, call me Tsuyu,” She repeats, her round, unblinking eyes staring deep inside Izuku’s orbs, her tone still as… neutral as before, even if a sudden chill begins to run down Izuku’s spine.

“Kero.”

-

Universal Studios Japan…

Was not, as it turned out, the destination of the class’ impromptu field trip, much to some of the students’ despair.

Instead, their destination happened to be the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, no relations, one of the aforementioned State of the Art facilities littered all around the UA campus’ grounds, currently hosted by the one and only Top Rescue Hero…

“THIRTEEN!” Izuku and Uraraka scream out at the same time, right as the spacesuit wearing hero appears in front of their class, the two instantly nerding out together over him as Aizawa sauntered his way toward the new arrival with a frown.

It was the beginning of a perfect day of lessons for our esteemed hero students, all eager and excited to learn from and experience simulated rescue scenarios at the best of their abilities, their smiles bright as they readied themselves for the unforgettable experience.

Which, of course, is when everything started going to shit.

-

A sudden chill of dread runs through everyone’s spine, right as a dark portal opens in the middle of the USJ’s main square, intruder upon intruder erupting from it, their deranged glares aimed at the students now in front of them.

“Thirteen, Eraserhead…” The dark portal itself mutters, glowing golden eyes peering at the scene unfolding in front of him, “It seems our informant was wrong Shigaraki Tomura, the Symbol of Peace isn’t here.”

“Oh?” One of the men, one of the _villains_ , simply grits out from under the severed hand attached on his face, “Well, no matter, just a minor setback to our plan…”

“I guess we’ll simply have to start killing some kids for every minute he doesn’t show up then, won’t we?”

-

“And where do you think you are all going?”

It’s the dark mist, the portal that had brought all those villains there to the USJ, its new, state of the art intruder sensors seemingly jammed by one of the villains’ Quirks.

And is the only thing standing between the students of class UA and the safety of the outside world, right as their homeroom teacher fighting tooth and nail against the Villain hordes to prevent them from reaching them.

The students, each of them frozen in shock at the sight in front of them, each of them having to think fast of a way to get past them, can only stare as the dark figure in front of them slowly begins to condense.

“Greetings, we are the league of Villains,” the mist begins reciting what seems to be a rehearsed speech, only to be instantly interrupted by one of the very students he was trying to intimidate with his own, villain monologuing.

“Oi, you moron!” Shinso yells at the obstacle right in front of them, voice amplified slightly by his support item, “What’s the meaning of all this then, what do you want from us?”

The mist villain bristles after being so rudely interrupted, before he returns to his speech.

“If you would let me finish, you impudent welp, we have come here to end the life… of the symbol of pea-”

The mist villain freezes, voice dying in its throat, golden eyes glazing over, unfocused, as Shinso quirk takes hold of him.

“I’ve heard enough…” He says, a victorious smirk appearing on his lips, “How about you stay here nice and quiet now and let us…”

Unfortunately for Shinso, a nice and easy escape from the USJ doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the students of Class 1-A, as two of them, the words coming from the mist villains finally sinking in, react in the only way they know of.

“MURDER ALL MIGHT? I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Bakugou explodes forward, followed shortly behind by an equally incensed Kirishima, Shinso’s eyes widening in shock as he sees the inevitable happening right before his eyes.

“Wait stop that way he’ll-”

Their attacks connect, the Mist Villain stumbling under the might of the two hero students blows…

Right as his mind snaps back to consciousness.

“How very… clever…” He grits out, as if he was in pain, drifting away from Bakugou and Kirishima as it expands into a large, dark cloud, “Tricking me in such a way, I guess that’s on me for underestimating you all… It won’t happen again!”

“Wait, before you do anything-” Shinso doesn’t even have the time to ask him another question before a dark cloud envelops him and his classmates, their screams chocked, their eyes wide as they disappear in the depths of the villain Quirk, their hearts beating hard against their ribcages, fear gripping at their chests...

“BEGONE!”

-

As Izuku falls off the sky, into the deep sea of the USJ’s patented Flood Zone, his impact causing ripples to form all around the artificial body of water, alerting the aquatic villains scattered all around there of his presence…

Something else ripples and stirs, deep within the ocean of the collective consciousness, as droplets drip and seep through the cracks of the barrier between imagination and reality, much like it had happened during the Entrance Exam, new creatures adapting to their new environments and begin on their _feasting_ …

Right as something substantially _bigger_ breaks through the cracked, fractured barrier, pummelling toward the real world, deep down below.

-

Izuku is unceremoniously dropped on a boat in the middle of a flooded zone, surrounded by bloodthirsty criminals.

A drenched bundle of feathers and a black cloak soon follows, dropped on the dock of the boat by Asui, Izuku’s recent saviour from a far too close encounter with a shark-man villain. The frog girl ribbits, her wide, unblinking eyes peering down the encroaching villains.

Tokoyami shudders, his head trembling like a wet chick as he shakes it around to get the water off him, a terrorized, trembling Izuku now to Asui’s side.

“That… could have gone way worst, Kero.” Tsuyu points out under her breath, peering down at the aquatic enemies gathered all around their impromptu safe spot, “For one thing, it seems we have not been warped into the dark side of the moon Kero, which means all our classmates must still be within the facilities with us Kero.”

“The villains here don’t seem too concerned with attacking us yet too,” Izuku mutters under his breath, brows furrowed, “The choice of environment is also iffy, dropping you, a student hero with Frog-Like powers, in the middle of a flood zone. They must be trying to keep us divided and contained, overwhelmed with numbers, at least until All Might arrives-”

Izuku’s mood sours instantly as he remembers the villains’ apparent plan, his mouth turning into one, firm line.

“The mist villain, Kero… He mentioned they were going to kill All Might, right before Shinso tried to give us an opening Kero…” Tsuyu ponders, one finger to her chin, “If any of those villains are on the level to tangle with the Symbol of Piece Kero… I don’t think we’d ever stand a chance against them if they decided to attack us Kero…”

“I’m… I’m not sure Asui…” Izuku mutters, his frown deepening, “Despite the overwhelming number advantage, Mr. Aizawa was dealing with some of the villains in the main square just fine, and even here you managed to deal with one of them without much issues. I don’t think they’d really be able to win with mere numbers-”

“I already told you to call me Tsuyu, Midoriya, I’d like not to repeat myself a third time,” Asui cuts him our out, her tone neutral, completely calm, turning toward Izuku with a wide, empty stare, Izuku gulping loudly at the sight, “Kero.”

“Oh… S-sorry As- Tsuyu!” Izuku squeaks out with a nervous chuckled, earning a solitary ribbit from the frog girl as she peers back out the boat’s ledge, her eyes squinting a little as she notices... something in the far edge of the flood zone, speeding through the water towards them.

“It seems we have been dropped into a veritable banquet of blood and Madness today,” Tokoyami grumbles darkly from his own spot beside Izuku, suddenly fine and dried, slightly startling the boy, his eyes aimed at where As- Tsuyu was watching, “Either stay put or fight back, we all better quicken in our decision, I can already see some reinforcements coming in from the shore…”

Izuku follows Tokoyami’s and Tsuyu’s gazes, the far-off water streak indeed rushing toward their surrounded boat at incredible speeds.

Izuku’s eyes widen in sudden, abject horror, as realization finally strikes him, panic instantly gripping at him as he stumbles backward from the edge of the boat, his classmates looking back at him in concern.

“Oh crap oh no…” Izuku says, eyes wide, hands trembling, “I’m… I’m about to make everything worse, aren’t I?”

Tsuyu frowns at his words, barely managing to open her mouth to ask him to elaborate on that…

Right as the incoming shadows reach the Villain’s lines.

“Oi guys, did the boss hire more people for this zo-”

A loud crash is heard, the Villains screaming in shock as they get invested by three rushing, running-on-water muscle bound men wearing speedos, blue masks strapped on their upper faces, multi-coloured, spirally fishes, pink eye-masks on them, swimming in their streaks.

The three culturists barrel against the villain’s defence line, easily breaking it as they jump off the water, causing ripples and waves to spread all around the flood zone, the Fish soon reaching the now scattered villains and starting to attack them viciously.

“Are they… Helping us Kero?” Asui, gripping the railing of the boat as it shakes after the sudden waves, wonders out loud, eyes fixed on the spectacle beneath her…

Right as the three muscle-bound metal-skinned culturists jump on the boat, the sudden movement rocking it, almost causing Izuku to stumble, right as the new arrivals begin posing menacingly at them.

Izuku panics, Persona card instantly in his hand, facing the shadows he had attracted there, giving them the perfect ground to spread and fester, Izuku’s eyes going blank as he freezes, thinking of all the students, all his new friends, already plenty in danger due to the villains, suddenly stuck between shadows and villains, because of him, because he was there to make things worse for everyone, his card slowly flickering in his hand…

“Stand behind me!” Tokoyami bellows, startling Izuku out of his panic as he drops in between Tsuyu and the three, still posing enemies, “Dark Shadow, now!”

“Fine fine, jeez, no need to shout…” Dark Shadow, Izuku’s addled mind still noticing how he now happened to be slightly smaller than how he was during the battle trial, chirps as he erupts from Tokoyami’s cloak, engaging the musclebound culturists as he swipes at them with his claws on both sides, “Get off my boat you WEAKLINGS!”

The two culturists at the side manage to effortlessly block the damage, their pecks glistening under the USJ Artificial lights, the claws bouncing off harmlessly against them.

Dark Shadow’s and Tokoyami’s beaks hang open, a stunned silence overcoming them right before the two Culturists, still posing, huff in contempt, an almost visible vein popping on Tokoyami’s and Dark Shadow’s dark heads at the sight… somehow.

“ARE YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME YOU SMALL FRY?!” Dark Shadow shrieks, enraged, as he attempts once again to overwhelm the two creatures with raw force, failing miserably at it, its’ hits bouncing off them with little issue.

“Tokoyami wait, that doesn’t seem to be working Kero…” Tsuyu croaks out, one hand going to shake Tokoyami off, his eyes forming an empty, blank glare at the enemy in front of him, completely ignoring her as he hackles Dark Shadow to keep going in his assault.

The culturist in the middle of the three, bigger and buffer than the other two, seems to sigh in contempt as he jumps over the battling creatures, vaulting over them in the shaky boat and aiming straight at Izuku with one, sonic punch.

Izuku barely has time to snap out of his funk, before the hit almost connects, Tsuyu’s tongue to wrapping around his leg and throwing the young man away from the creature’s trajectory and crashing him against the nearby cabin’s wall.

“Midoriya, this is not the time for muttering, we’re gona need all the help we can get if we want to survive this kero,” Tsuyu ribbits in an even tone, the bigger culturist crashing against the boat’s deck, leaving a visible dent in his trajectory, “So, try not to get yourself killed and, please, summon something to get us out of this mess if you don’t’ mind, Kero.”

“Oh, Ah… Y- yes, yes sorry!” Izuku squeaks out, startled, stumbling back on his feet as he shakes his head, focusing back to the situation at hand, Pale Blue Card already in hand, “P-Physical attacks don’t seem to work on them so… P- Persona!”

Angel’s androgynous, winged form erupts in a shower of blue flames, a faint smile on their lips as they witness the opponent standing right in front of them.

“After all these years, we meet once again my old friend…” Angel’s dulcet tones begin, a small frown coming to their brow as they peer at the bigger of the three shadows, now back into a fighting stance, squaring off against Izuku’s Persona “Oh, but what… uncouth form did they put you into? Don’t worry, I’ll help you get free of your prison of flesh!”

“G-Garu!” Izuku calls out, a strong breeze erupting from Angel’s wings and hitting the Evil Culturist straight against the chest, making him stumble slightly, a soft growl escaping its mouth.

Meanwhile, Tokoyami and Dark Shadow keep on uselessly swiping against the still posing enemies, growls almost escaping their twin beaks.

“DIE DIE DIE!” Dark Shadow cackles maniacally, completely ignoring the ineffectiveness of his hits, his form growing slightly bigger with each swipe.

Tsuyu loudly sighs and turns back toward a still frenzied Tokoyami, eyes narrowing imperceptibly, before a loud smacking sound is heard, her large, powerful frog-like hand slapping against his Raven’s head and, a cry of pain escaping his beak as his eyes shift back into a more neutral, if slightly pained expression.

“That… That hurt woman!” Tokoyami sputters, one hand going to his cheek as he glares at her, finally back to a calmer state of mind.

“Yes, whatever, I’ll try to be more gentle next time kero,” Tsuyu replies in a monotone drone, either missing or ignoring as Tokoyami’s cheeks manage to take a faint blush even under all the feathers… somehow, “Now, if you please, use your head kero, and start dropping those… weirdos back into the water with the other villains kero, rather than uselessly bash at them like a cave… crow, Kero.”

Her tongue shoots out, without even looking at its destination as she keeps on staring at Tokoyami, right as she wraps her tongue around one of the two Culturists bodies, snagging at its waist as she drops him out of the boat, right on top of one shark-man’s heads.

“See, just like that kero,” Tsuyu points out with her monotone drawl, jumping back high in the air and dropping on Dark Shadow’s head, using it as a springboard to somersault back, Dark Shadow snarling out in pain and surprise as she snaps him out of his own frenzy, “And calm down you overgrown chicken, this is not the time for getting pissy over some weird villain’s posturing on you, kero.”

Izuku chuckles slightly as he fires off another Garu, he and his persona narrowly dodging another sonic punch coming from the enemy shadow, only for his mood to sour and his smile to fall instantly, dark thoughts filling his mind.

They were fine there, yes, but who knew how were his fellow classmates doing now, with Shadows and Villains threatening their lives both?

-

“I swear, if we survive this, I’m going to strangle that exploding bastard be the last thing I do,” Shinso grumbles under his breath, eyes narrowed, shaking slightly due to the sudden drop in temperatures as he finds himself in the Landslide zone alongside Todoroki, two motionless, blank eyed villains standing at his side, giant hand monsters crushed beneath their boots and slowly fading away, “Better yet, I’m going to brainwash Sato into overdosing on sugar, and THEN I’m going to ask him to strangle him, easier to snap his neck with...”

Todoroki, one eyebrow slightly raised, ignores the other man’s grumbling as he inspects his handwork, trembling, frozen villains standing all around him like ice sculptures, completely at his mercy.

“Aren’t you all glad you had to deal with me rather than him uh?” Todoroki points out to a nearby, trapped villain, his tone cold, his expression frozen in a stiff, almost indifferent mask.

“Now… what’s this story about wanting to kill All Might?”

-

Bakugou and Kirishima.

Two bros, kicking villains’ and shadows’ asses alike in the Collapsed Zone, five feet apart because they are ~~not~~ gay.

-

Yaoyorozu and Jiro are huddled together under a rubber blanket, inches apart, Yaoyorozu suffering a mild wardrobe malfunction as Kirishima unleashes a suicide attack in the area all around him, frying every villain and monster there on the spot, right alongside his poor, overloaded brain, every single floating monsters dropping down on the ground, stunned, the books encapsulated within their headgears burnt to a crisp.

“I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me…” Jiro thinks, her eyes fixed on Yaoyorozu’s exposed… assets, as the other young woman uncaringly flaunts them around, already producing a new costume off her body.

A small stream of blood starts trickling down Jiro’s nose at the sight.

-

“Yes, run away you fools, we are the king and queen of the jungle!” Hagakure yells excitedly at the retreating Villains’ backs, an embarrassed and blushing Koda at her side, absentmindedly petting one of his new friends, lion shaped shadows with a large, round ball and chain stuck to their legs, the monsters now mewling and frolicking all around them in the windy Downpour zone.

“Let’s go partner, I’ve seen some more villains there!!” Hagakure yells excitedly, one invisible hand going at Koda’s hand, his blush only worsening as they and their animal entourage keep on prowling the faux city, her maniacal cackle sending shivers down the spines of every villain there.

“Oh, next time, try to have our new friends send someone my way,” Hagakure cheerfully yells over the rush of the wind as their veritable army rounds a corner, “I want to trip them by surprise when they pass me, I swear, their faces will be priceless!”

-

It’s the culmination of Uraraka’s not good, very bad day, and thing couldn’t be looking worse for her.

For one thing, she doesn’t know where half of her classmates are right now.

For another, her childhood hero is dying, dying to protect her and the few friends still around her, from being taken away or worse, killed by all the villains around the USJ.

And to top it all off, she is starting to hear voices.

_“Look at you, so selfish, taking away your childhood hero from you, and you didn’t even try to do anything to stop them.”_

Uraraka ignores the voice, the familiar, hammering voice that had kept on pestering her ever since her friends had disappeared back into the mist villain’s gate.

_“What, still no response? You’re pathetic, I bet they could be killing Iida, Aoyama, Deku, anyone of your so-called friends right in front of you and you wouldn’t even try to lift a finger to save them.”_

“S-shut up.” Uraraka mutters, teeth gritting, eyes wide in horror as she is incapable not to stare as Thirteen is torn apart by his own black hole, time almost slowing to a crawl for her, “You’re- You’re not real… This is… this is just the shock talking, or maybe one of the villains’ quirks-”

_“Oh, finally talking to yourself, princess? That’s what breaks you? But why, is not like you ever even cared about them? All you care about, is have fun, and stack up huge sums of cash so you can run away from your pathetic little town where nothing ever happens…”_

“W- What? Uraraka stammers out eyes wide, “N- No, that’s… that’s not t- true, how-”

“How would I know?” The voice, now incredibly more real, says directly beside Uraraka’s left ear, startling the girl as she hastily turns, coming face to face…

With herself.

“Because I am you princess!” Shadow Uraraka chirps out, mouth twisted in a cruel smirk, yellow eyes glowing ominously, “I know every, single dirty little secret, I know all about all of your greedy, selfish reasons for becoming a hero, all about your stupid, so easy to sway heart, and all about who you really, truly rotten are deep, deep inside!”

“N- no… That’s impossible!” Uraraka yells out, taking a step back, her clone instantly taking a step forward “Y- you know nothing about me!”

“On the contrary my dear, I know EVERYTHING about you,” Shadow Uraraka says with a cheeky, smug smile, “You’re a fraud, a joke, a greedy, wicked woman who got lucky and managed to get inside the top hero academy in the country because some fool saved ger, and now thinks she’ll be able to cash in all the money and sponsorship deals in the world and easily slack off her way to the top! You never took anything here seriously, your classmates, your studies, everything is just a new excuse to goof off or mooch off money off your so-called friends!”

“Sh- Shut up!” Uraraka yells, panic gripping her, her breath getting ragged, her pupils thinner.

“You can’t deny the truth little Ochako…” the shadow Uraraka says with a wild cackle, suddenly rushing toward her, hands outstretched, squashing her cheeks with them, “You can’t deny your true nature, it’s as ugly and plain for all to see! You are no hero, you are just a worthless, cowardly, greedy daughter of two washed up failures. You will never become a hero and you know it, you’ll just run back home with your tail between your legs and return becoming a washed-up manager of that stupid, worthless, pathetic Inn!”

“I said shut up Dammit!” Uraraka yells, her nerves, her patience finally hitting the boiling point, anger sparking in her eyes, one hand already slapping her doppelganger’s hands away.

“You… I don’t know who the hell do you think you are, but of one thing I’m certain!” Uraraka yells out, her clone taking a step back in front of her almost visible anger, a small smirk appearing on her face as Uraraka seals her fate, the inevitable happening.

“And that’s… that’s that you are **not** me!”

-

“A- And stay down!” Izuku yells to the finally downed shadow, his SP taking a heavy hit after the prolonged Garus. If his math is correct, he still had plenty of more spells still in him before he needed to sleep them back to normal, his mouth setting into a grim line as he started calculating how much magic he could still pull, how much he still needed to pull, before having to pass on more physical moves.

The Villains and Shadows below were still going at it, even as the second culturist joins them back in the water, dropping on the head of the same Shark-Man Villain the first culturist had been dropped on thanks to Dark Shadow.

“We need to scram, Kero,” Tsuyu points out, she and Tokoyami jogging back to Izuku, “We don’t know for how long are these villains or those… weird fishes-things going to keep going at it kero, but we need to reach shore soon and reach back the main entrance, see if we can go out asking for help kero.”

“Mmmmm, I don’t think it will be easy break off this veritable feast of villainy and fish fingers down there,” Tokoyami points out with a frown, one hand going beneath his beak, seemingly either brooding or legitimately deep in thought, “And even then, we still have to deal with this… scoundrel over here before we can start moving, wouldn’t want him attempt anything... Funny on us.”

“Permission to throw the trash overboard boss?” Dark Shadow growls out, already itching at Tokoyami’s side, only for Izuku’s persona to float back in between the Dark Shadow and the downed, still existing shadow, their radiance blinding him.

“Gah, get that… thing away from me!” Dark Shadow yells, shambling and hiding back into Tokoyami’s cloak, a sigh escaping the crow’s mouth at his Quirk’s antics.

“There will be no need for further violence. Our new friend here has surrendered to the will of our Lord, ready to get back into his fold…” The Angel intones with a pleased smile, staring down at the downed, muscle bound culturist, “Aren’t I right… Sister?”

The culturist disappears in bright particles of light, much to Tokoyami’s and Tsuyu’s astonishment, as well as Dark Shadow’s cry of annoyance, right as a bright, red card is left in his wake, face down on the boat’s deck.

Izuku gulps, suddenly very aware of his two classmates’ stares on him, trembling slightly even as he kneels down and grabs at his new persona’s card, revealing the true form of the Shadow he had, apparently, just tamed.

A red blush appears on Izuku’s cheek at the sight, right as a hand slaps against his shoulder, his attention back on her and her flat stare, as well as Tokoyami questioning, almost distrustful gaze beside her.

“Midoriya Kero?” Tsuyu drawls out, eyes narrowed slightly, “What was th- Kero?!”

Tsuyu doesn’t even have the time to continue, that the whole USJ starts trembling, large waves forming within the flooding zone and violently rocking the boat they found themselves in, villain and shadow alike crashing against each other, the three students stumbling toward the railing of the boat, their gaze turning toward the entrance of the USJ right on the horizon.

“What the hell is going on here?!” One of the villains screams, right as another giant fish crashes right against her, knocking her out cold.

Izuku’s eyes widen, right as a large, giant monster erupts from the entrance, right where his friends used to be, right where their freedom would have been, floating in the hair in its grotesque, monstrous form.

The monster, the new Shadow, Izuku realizes, is a giant, anatomical heart, almost reaching all the way to the USJ’s dome. Two rings seem to be circling around it, horizontal to it and spinning wildly, right as giant, white and black gloved hands float all around it, gathering at its extremities, forming six different sets of “wings,” twelve in total, departing from the Heart, a large, red dragon-like head, almost crowned by a weird lump right above its eyes, long whiskers vibrating at the sides, long neck erupting from one of the top side of the heart, its maw wide with large, jagged teeth, yellow mist soon erupting from its nostrils, spreading all around its head, entirely clouding it from sight with its fog.

“They… they said they were planning to kill All Might kero…” Tsuyu says, eyes wide and unblinking, staring right into the abyss floating in front of her “Is that… is that their weapon Kero? Is that… is that the monster they created to surpass All Might, Kero?”

And then, unexpectedly, the shadow speaks.

And Izuku’s world will never be the same again.

“I AM A SHADOW, THE TRUE SELF!”

Izuku and his classmates stiffen at the distorted, loud, authoritative, yet so impossibly familiar voice, a hand going to his mouth to supress a cry, his eyes widening in horror.

“YOU WANT TO LIVE A LIE?! WELL FINE, I’LL GIVE YOU THE ULTIMATE LIE! ONE WHERE YOU ARE A HERO WORTHY OF SAVING EVERYONE IN HERE FROM THEMSELVES! SINK IN YOUR LIES AND YOUR DELUSIONS AND LET A TRUE HERO HANDLE THIS, PRINCESS!”

“U-Uraraka?” Tsuyu calls out, her eyes wide, sounding as lost as Izuku feels, right as the world descends into a deep, intoxicating yellow fog.

-

Shigaraki Tomura was not having a good time.

For one thing, All Might isn’t there. How could this be an assassination on the supposed symbol of peace, if the man in question didn’t even show up to get killed? It was preposterous, unheard off, Shigaraki’s neck becoming a criss-cross of scratches as he keeps staring, keeps witnessing as all his stupid pawns keep getting their asses kicked by some hobo with a scarf made out of tape.

Then, out of bloody nowhere, here comes all those mobs, creepy masked fuckers, battling with all the few pawns the hobo hadn’t managed to knock out yet, some of them even daring to have a go at him or his Nomu…

Preposterous.

Still, with that out of the way, having to deal with the damn hero himself now, one of his arms already, slowly decaying under his touch, Shigaraki thought, hoped, that maybe things were starting to get back to their proper place now, that he could still kill a couple heroes, and that, maybe, All Might was finally going to show up soon.

That… didn’t happen.

And instead, all that Shigaraki Tomura got was…

“A… Secret Boss?” he drawls, a crawling feeling itching as his neck, already scratching at it with his nails, “A… Fucking… Secret Boss… Right in the middle of MY fucking clan raid?!”

He looks wildly around, everything looking yellow and cloudy all of a sudden, the villain barely managing to see anything outside of his general vicinity without squinting.

“Great… And it has in-built fog of war too…” He grumbles, instantly squatting down as Eraserhead launches himself at him, capture tape already out and aimed at Shigaraki’s head.

“Well, I can see just fine,” Aizawa grunts out, his capture weapon decaying and crumbling as Shigaraki simply grabs at the ends of it, “These glasses aren’t just a fashion statement you know?”

“Yet you are still blind to how truly outclassed you are here,” Shigaraki points out, his patience running thin, “Nomu, if you will, get rid of this annoying pest for me will you?”

It happens in three seconds.

The first second, the giant, muscular monster named Nomu, drops right on top of Aizawa, a loud snap reverberating in the square, one of the monster’s hands squashing Aizawa’s head into the concrete below, the other crushing his still decaying arm, snapping it in its grasp.

The second second, loud clapping is heard, reverberating all around the USJ, as giant, gloved hands descend from above, hurling at the floor below like meteors, their palms open.

And the third second…

“SPECIAL MOVE: TYRANNY OF THE SKY!”

The hands drop on the ground, a shockwave pervading the foggy grounds of the USJ, as, in that one, specific second…

Gravity reverses.

Shigaraki Nomura doesn’t even have the time to yell as he skyrockets to the top of the USJ’s dome, the Nomu following closely behind alongside the lot of the villain pawns he had brought alongside him, crashing against the hard steel and concrete of the giant dome, a cough erupting from his mouth right into his head-hand.

Shigaraki cries in pain, the pressure unbearable, the Nomu thankfully missing him by a wide margin as he embeds itself into the USJ’s dome. He looks around himself, noticing the other, by now passed out villains all around him, taking stock of who is or isn’t there with him.

“S- So, Eraserhead got… spared, I’d say there must be a real monster among all those fucking kids, out for our blood already, like the good little tools of state sanctioned violence they are… so… fucking… ANNOYING!” He grits out to the Nomu, as if the thing can actually understand his musings, eyes shifting around, the mist fortunately bottoming out somewhere right above (below?) him.

“So, no symbol of peace, the children are all without villains to keep them in check anymore, we barely managed to cripple one fucking hero, and now we are stuck on the fucking roof!” He cries out, not even able to scratch at his neck with his nails, spread eagled as he is, “Can things get any fucking worse?!”

“Shigaraki Tomura,” the mist villain, Kurogiri, appears at his side, seemingly unaffected by the weird new gravitational pull, a vein already popping on Shigaraki’s brow as he knows more bullshit is about to come up, “A few of the students have managed to escape me, some of them are probably going to call for help soon, the incursion was a bust, we need to leave before any more heroes show up.”

“You had… one job Kurogiri…” Shigaraki growls, glaring daggers from his trapped position at a nonplussed Kurogiri, “One Fucking Job Kurogiri… Prevent any of these fucking brats… from leaving the premises… ONE. FUCKING. JOB. And you got yourself duped… by some fucking teenagers?!”

“I am aware of that.” Kurogiri simply states in a dry tone, only grating more on Shigaraki’s nerves, “We still need to leave.”

“G- god, if you weren’t our only way out, I swear-” A bright light attracts Shigaraki’s attention, shining right above to the yellow mist above (below?) him, heading right toward the middle of the mist bank, Shigaraki’s eyes growing wide, his teeth grinding in frustration.

“And what the fuck is that now?!”

-

Dark Shadow did not, under any circumstances, desire to get a piggyback ride from the accursed flying humanoid coming out of the green brat’s head.

Especially not now, when there was so much nice darkness all around him thanks to the thick, eerily familiar fog, hiding away all the ugliness and hypocrisy that everyone could see plain as day while under the bright light of truth.

So, he and his… pet, decline the offer by the Green Brat and the Frog-Predator to go up and face the cause of the fog up there in the clouds, the two getting back on dry, flat land and staying there, nice and cosy, away from all the madness around them, only to almost stumble on Dark Shadow’s Pet’s half dead homeroom teacher.

Now, Dark Shadow could have been a brat and not followed his pet’s order to help him carry the almost dead professor outside…

But then again, outside, even without the nice, yellow fog and with way more natural light than here… It seemed a nice and safe peace to be right now, away from the large, menacing... Monster, or the bright, far too shiny creature hanging around the Green Brat.

And Dark Shadow wanted to make as much ground from that… industrial grade flashlight as he could, least he decided to come back for him, so, he plays the part of the nice, faithful Shadow, and hastily grabs…

No, wait, broken bones, that could kill him, how about he _gently hoists_ the half dead man up in his claws then, almost cradling his body, right as guides his Pet outside the blessed, yellow fog.

As if he could see like it was never there in the first place.

-

“Midoriya, I know this has something to do with you Kero…” Tsuyu drawls out, her tone dry and monotone, even as she was carried bridal style by Izuku’s androgynous persona, Izuku piggy back riding off of their back, almost losing his grip on them after the sudden question, almost chocking on his own spit, “There are far too many coincidences Kero, you freaking out the second the new villains showed up, you gaining a card from one of those weird villains kero, and now Uraraka turns into a giant… thing Kero. If you know something, you better tell me and fast, Kero…”

“I- I mean… I mean-” Izuku sputters out, suddenly self-conscious, not sure of what he could say and couldn’t really say to his classmate as he slowly gulps, “It’s… It’s complicated Tsuyu, and now it’s not the best time to-”

“Ok, then you tell me the smaller details later Kero,” Tsuyu cuts him off, her tone hard, “I just want to know what happened to our friend, and how can we save her kero, so try to give me the abridged version, Kero.”

Izuku gulps, slowly, his brain working a mile a minute as he tries to formulate a satisfactory answer for Tsuyu.

“Ok… Ok…” Izuku breaths out, steeling himself, closing his eyes as he reorders his thoughts “So, my… My Quirk, the… the creatures it can summon ok? They… it’s like come from my… mind or something? It’s a… mental Quirk in a way, anyway… They are personifications of my… Ego, if you will, taking different forms based on… entities and creatures coming from everyone’s collective consciousness… I don’t know if I’m being clear, the collective consciousness is-”

“I asked for the abridged version Midoriya kero, how is this, in any way, relevant to Uraraka turning into a giant monster, Kero?” Tsuyu cuts him out, one finger pointing to her chin as she thinks more about it, “Unless… Are you saying Kero… That Uraraka’s ego coming out of her and going crazy, Kero? Did your Quirk give her cooties or something Kero?”

Izuku blushes slightly, shaking his head even if she couldn’t see him from her position, “No… No, that’s… that’s like one of those monsters, they are something different, they are- I mean, I… I call them Shadows, they are splinters, failed personas, the combination of someone’s negative thoughts, their unbound desires… they are basically someone’s unrestrained Id. They are a… a side effect of my quirk I guess, they show up in places where I get particularly stressed out, places that are already filled with equally stressed out people, or maybe is more based on their most extreme emotions I… I really don’t know at this point but, basically… My Quirk acts like… like a beacon for them, a lighthouse that calls them on toward me, that beckons them to come to me and start attacking anything in sight, like during-”

“The entrance exam Kero.” Tsuyu concludes his words, humming in thought, “Those… creatures, those balls with mouths, I knew they weren’t just another hidden part of the exam or simple glitches kero… So, you’re saying that’s-”

“Uraraka’s shadow?” Izuku says with a slow gulp, brows furrowed in worry “I… I don’t know… they usually aren’t sentient, nor this… big or powerful, even when the 0-Pointer showed up during the Exam, it was more a collection of shadows infecting it than one, big one like now and…”

Izuku stops, chocking on something, his grip on Angel tightening as small tears start pooling at the edge of his eyes,

“What… What should I do?” Izuku says, his tone desperate, his eyes wide “Do I… Do I defeat her? Should I kill her? Befriend her? Tame her? What if any of that harms Uraraka or her psyche? Should I reason with her? Try to find the real Uraraka if she is still here? Has she merged with the monster, or is she somewhere around here, passed out or, worse, completely unaware of what is happening and scared out of her mind?! God, I don’t even know what to do…”

A tense silence pervades the air, as they keep soaring through the skies, right above the fog below and the scattered, crushed villains above them, tears starting to spill from Izuku’s eyes.

“Then we find out what’s wrong with her, and we save her no matter what, Kero.” Tsuyu says, her tone firm and confident, “I’ve known you for only a week Midoriya, but I already I know you’re smarter than you look Kero, just like I know you’d do anything to help your friends Kero.”

“You will find a way to save our friend Kero.” Tsuyu concludes with her dry, matter of fact tone, more like a statement than a promise, “I am sure of it, Kero.”

Izuku’s eyes are almost fountains right now, his breath catching under the sudden faith in him and his capacities, a small hint of confidence blossoming in his chest.

“Because if you don’t…” Tsuyu continues, her dry tone turning suddenly dark, “I’m going to launch you into Pluto’s orbit with my tongue, and no jury will ever find me guilty for it, Kero.”

“Found the source of this wicked mist My Lord.” Angel announces with a beatific smile, seemingly unaware of the two teens’ conversation, nor her holder sudden panic right as they dive back inside the deep fog beneath them, Izuku and Tsuyu coughing loudly as they descend forward, “You Better hold on tight, I’m afraid we’re in for a battle like no other before us!”

They spear through the fog, only to erupt inside a pocket of clear air, right in the middle of the USJ, the giant heart-shaped shadow floating right in the middle, it’s dragon head still surrounded by a large yellow cloud, fog erupting off of it upwards.

“Well well well, what do we have here…” The shadow rumbles, the voice so like Uraraka and yet so different, distorted, wrong, as she notices their sudden arrival, “Prince charming once again coming to save the little damsel in distress, now, that’s a true hero if I ever saw one!”

“What have you done to Uraraka?” Izuku yells out instantly, an ant screaming against a giant, eyes fixed on the abomination in front of him.

“Uraraka? She is safe right now, safe in her own delusions, away from the harsh truth of reality,” The shadow rumbles on, the “wings” surrounding it shifting, flapping slightly, only to break apart, each flying hand descending upon Tsuyu, Izuku and his Persona, “But don’t you worry Deku, you will join her real soon!”

Izuku almost swears, almost, as Angel dodges through the air the incoming slaps, the two teens on them hanging onto the persona for dear life.

“G- Garu!” Izuku calls out, a gust of wind hitting against one, single hand, and barely making a dent against it, “Crap, they are strong to wind, and Angel is my only flying Persona!”

“Let me lend you a tongue then, Kero.” Tsuyu drawls out, jumping off Angel and unleashing her tongue, grabbing onto a black gloved hand and slinging toward it like a slingshot. She drops on it, the flying hand buckling under her sudden weight, as Tsuyu uses it as a platform to jump off a second hand, white gloved this time, right as a third giant hand crashes against the one she had been using earlier, the white and black gloved hands exploding in a puff of yellow smoke.

“I’m going to deal with these things now, you go and save Uraraka kero.” Tsuyu commands him, her tone dry even as she loudly speaks over the rush of flying hands and crashes, jumping from hand to hand, making herself a target for their onslaught, “Come on Midoriya, we don’t have all day Kero.”

“G- Got it!” Izuku stammers out, already streaming through the air with Angel, evading the few remaining giant hands as he bursts toward the main body.

Izuku minds reels a mile a minute, his eyes desperately scanning over the giant shadow floating in front of him.

“The best place it would be for hiding Uraraka, if she is even here to begin with, would be near the head, the only place still covered in deep fog,” He mutters, his persona zipping through the air toward the top of the giant monster, already heeding his unspoken command.

“And here comes the pure and noble hero, valiantly challenging the evil and greedy dragon to rescue his beloved princess!” the giant shadow bellows, cackles escaping her maw, “But what if the greedy dragon and the beautiful princess are one and the same hero? Will you bring yourself to strike down your beloved’s heart in order to save her?!”

A rush of wind erupts from within the yellow fog clouding the Shadow’s maw, hitting an ascending Izuku and angel straight on.

With a cry, Izuku loses his grip on Angel, the boy beginning his quick, meteoric descent back on the ground, his hand outstretched toward his Persona, right as a giant, floating white hand swipes in from beneath him, Izuku falling ass first onto its open palm.

“Now now, let’s not end this tale of love and heroism so hastily!” Uraraka’s shadow cackles, “I haven’t had my fun with you yet, and we’re still missing an actor in today’s tragedy! Call out your Knight Deku, let’s see if he can save her once again from her own demise!”

Izuku grinds his teeth, more hands floating beneath him, forming a platform for him to stand on, staring down the clouded face of his opponent, his eyes narrowed.

“She’s trying to bait me,” Izuku realizes as he mutters, Angel hastily descending at his side, “She knows Quixote has a weakness to wind, which seems to be one of her main methods of attack, as well as her and her minions main resistances…”

An idea starts forming within Izuku’s mind, resistances and weaknesses and data rushing one after the other. He had spent some time during the week with Remus and Anna, trying to understand his personas as much as possible, especially after the disaster with Bakugou, and if he had understood something, was that, usually, personas who were strong with one particular element, such as, say, wind, were usually also weak to their “opposite” element.

And the same seemed to count for shadows.

Yellow card already in hand, Angel disappears from Izuku’s side, right as he calls out his next persona.

“Persona!” Izuku calls out, Pixie erupting from it in a burst of blue flames with a childish giggle.

“What? No, I asked for a knight here, not that… thing! Dammit Deku you brat, you should learn to do as you are told!”

Uraraka’s shadow cries out, burst of wind erupting from her maw toward Izuku, only for the Pixie to flutter in between them, greatly reducing the damage onto herself and Deku.

“Ha, the winds of passion do not affect me so easily Shadow!” Pixie giggles out, already buzzing with excitement, “Sir, permission to respond in kind to our new friend?”

“L- let’s… let’s hope my hunch is right then,” Izuku stammers, steeling himself, “Zio!”

Pixie vibrates, fairy dust shaking off of her as a lightning shoots up into the sky from her tiny body, arching onto the hair before dropping right against the giant shadow in front of them, twin screams of pain echoing in the USJ.

Some of the yellow fog starts dispersing from around Uraraka’s shadow’s head, revealing her long whiskers and draconic visage, as well as the large, golden cage sitting on top of her brows.

“Oh no!” Izuku cries out in horror, right as Uraraka’s shadow cackles out, fog already returning to obscure everything inside of it from sight.

“Oh, how true it is, we always hurt the ones we love the most,” Uraraka’s shadow mockingly says, “You cannot hurt me without hurting your precious little friend yourself Deku!”

“You… you coward!” Izuku cries out, tears starting to pool at the edge of his eyes.

“Coward? Of course, I’m a coward!” The shadow bellows out, suddenly enraged, Izuku’s platform trembling as Hands start dropping out one by one, “I ran away from everything! I ran away from my family, my responsibilities, so I could come here and play hero, deluding myself I was doing it for their sake, when in truth I just couldn’t stand how tired they always looked, trying to keep that god forsaken inn going, and wasting all their effort and money on it! All the nights we had to starve so our so-called clients could feast, all the birthdays and festivities where I couldn’t get any presents because we needed to save money…”

“I hate my life there!” She continues, completely ignoring Izuku as he hastily calls back Angel and drops in his arms, now carried bridal style, “I am no one there! But here? Here I can become everything! I can become a cool and powerful hero, swimming in money and glory all day long, I’ll be able to do and have anything, everything I’ll ever want, and I’ll be able to never go hungry again!”

“Well, you’ll not be able to do that by throwing a tantrum here and now Kero.” Tsuyu points out in a monotone, jumping off yet another floating hand into Angel’s head, perching on top of them, earning an embarrassed chuckle from the persona, “Especially when it’s not really Uraraka doing any of these things kero.”

“W- What?!” Uraraka’s shadow bellows out, more wind rushing off her maw, almost unbalancing the two heroes and the Persona, the heart forming Uraraka’s shadow’s body, formerly motionless, starting to faintly beat at Tsuyu’s words, “You dare deny me as she did?! I am her, and she is me, you cannot change this, she cannot change this, no matter how much she cries and whimpers about it up here!”

A spark of an idea lights up in Izuku’s mind, his eyes focused on the Shadow in front of him

“A- and yet she is still more real than you’ll ever be!” He calls out, gathering all the courage he could get, “You are simply the collection of our friend’s worst desires and thoughts, unbound and unburdened from her best qualities. Had you not been here to waste all of our time, Uraraka would have probably already found a way to save us all faster and better than you’ve already have!”

This only seems to enrage the Shadow further, the heart starting to beat faster, a guttural cry, almost a roar, escaping her maws, shaking up and down as the fogs starts clearing.

“Izuku… I don’t know what you’re doing Kero, but maybe we shouldn’t piss off the giant heart-dragon-monster-abomination too much Kero…” Tsuyu points out, eyes growing wider as the shadow’s “heart” keeps beating faster and faster, waves of air erupting each beat.

Izuku completely ignores her, eyes fixed on the Shadow’s head, a small, victorious smirk forming on his mouth.

“Because yeah, you might be part of her, and you might be a strong, powerful shadow ready to blow us all to pieces…” Izuku yells out, fists tightening, knuckles going white, “But she is Uraraka Ochako, first place in the entrance exam, and the kindest, strongest girl I’ve ever know! And I don’t know what you might think of her, of yourself… hell, I don’t even care what her motivations for becoming a hero are… But If I’ll ever be certain of one thing, is that she doesn’t need any knight in rusty armour to save herself!”

A crash is heard, right from atop the dragon’s head, the fog clearing instantly, the shadows’ large, yellow snake like eyes growing blank, as the cage on top of her head shatter, Uraraka erupting off it, floating away with a cry of victory as the shadow starts fading away, slowly erupting into small, particles of white light, the yellow mist all around them slowly fading away.

“Oh god I’m at my limit… somebody catch me!” Uraraka yells, her Quirk ending as she drops down, Izuku giving out a startled yelp as he steers Angel toward the path of her crash, only for Tsuyu to roll her eyes and shoot her tongue out, circling Uraraka’s waist and shooting her back toward them like a slingshot, Angel barely huffing at the sudden new weight on his head as Tsuyu, still perched on it, and now hold Uraraka bridal style.

“T- Thank you, another second and I would have started vomiting my guts out,” Uraraka chuckles out, a pained expression on her face, her coloration slightly green.

“Oh, you can do that too kero?” Tsuyu asks, sounding as genuinely surprised as she’d ever sound, right as Angel finally reaches back to the USJ main square, Izuku nervously shifting his eyes around.

“Ok, we need to meet back with the others and get out of here now, we don’t know where all of the villains-” Izuku doesn’t even have the time to finish his sentence that a dark portal appears behind them all, a chill running down his spine, the three students freezing under the sudden, incredible bloodlust coming from behind them.

Angel is the first to react, throwing Uraraka and Tsuyu off, far away from them, right as they use their own body as a shield between them and the assailants, only for the Persona to cry as pain like non other shoots through them, one, single hand grabbing at one of their wings and clasping.

Angel disappears in blue flame, eyes glazed over, the feedback rushing back into Izuku as he screams, falling to his knees, his breath ragged, barely coherent as he falls onto the ground, eyes glazed over

“D- Deku!” Uraraka yells, getting off from atop Tsuyu and trying to rush back toward her friend, only for her friend to grab at her with one hand, stopping her as they notice the villains, the leader of them as well as his large, muscular monster, come out of the large portal, the mist villain soon forming back behind them.

“This is not how it was supposed to go…” Shigaraki spits out, nails scratching at his neck, one feet kicking at Izuku’s motionless body, eliciting a cry of pain from him, “This is NOT how I was expecting my day to go… What the FUCK are they even teaching you in this godforsaken academy?!”

Another kick against Izuku, the villain unleashing his frustrations on him, Tsuyu’s and Uraraka’s eyes widening, unable to do anything but watch, powerlessly, as their friend is hit over and over by the villain.

“I might not be able to kill the Symbol of Peace, and I might have had my entire league defeated by a bunch of teenagers and their pet pocket monsters…” Shigaraki says after one, final kick, taking a deep breath, trying to compose himself, “And help must surely be on the way for you… brats, but be the last thing I do, I’m not leaving this fucking hellhole without getting a single kill today!”

One hand raise, almost in slow motion, ready to descend into Izuku, ready to crumble him into a crisp, just like he did Angel, and everything, suddenly…

Stops.

Uraraka must blink her tears away, shaking her head as he sees the world stopping all around her, only for her eyes to turn toward the only other thing, currently moving within reality.

A pale blue butterfly…

Fluttering just above her shadow’s battered body.

“He believed in us…” Uraraka’s shadow spits out, a bitter chuckle soon turning into a cough, dark blood staining her costume, “He believed in you when not even I did. He said we could become a great hero, no matter what our motivations were…”

“Do you really want to prove him wrong but letting him die?”

Uraraka’s breath catches, her eyes widening, her mouth trembling at her shadow’s words, her fists tightening at her side.

“N- No! I… I don’t want anyone to die today! I don’t want for him to die today!” Uraraka stammers out, tears flowing freely on her cheeks, running at her shadow’s side, the butterfly still placidly fluttering around, “You must help me, you need to become the… the monster from before, maybe that way-”

“Help you?” The Shadow interrupts her with a pained chuckle, her body slowly fading away, sounding almost surprised, “Ochako… You’ve heard our valiant knight in shining armour just then… I am you. The only one who can help you now, the only one who can save him now… is Yourself.”

Uraraka’s eyes widen, panic gripping at her, not knowing what to do, how to react, as her shadow slowly become more and more transparent, as time, slowly, starts crawling back to its proper pace…

The blue butterfly flutters upward, gently posing on Uraraka’s head… and, suddenly, everything is clear within her mind.

“You really are me, aren’t you?” Uraraka asks, realization suddenly hitting her, an inscrutable look on her face, “All my… darkest, worst parts and secrets, but also all the things I never had the courage to say out loud, all the… worst parts of me, that I could never face?”

“Took you long enough to realize it,” Uraraka’s shadow breaths out at last, her entire body erupting in blue flames, her mouth taking a small, gentle smile, “Let’s hope it’s not too late for him…”

Time slings back to its proper pace, nothing stopping Shigaraki’s hand to claw at Izuku’s head…

Only for a gust of wind to erupt from Uraraka’s Persona, making Shigaraki stumble away from his prey, the Nomu quickly catching him before he could fall on his ass.

“OH, FOR FUCK SAKE!” Shigaraki yells, a man done with everyone’s shit but his, “I CAN’T EVEN KILL A FUCKING KID IN PEACE TODAY?!”

“I am Thou, and Thou art I.”

In front of an astounded Uraraka, erupting from bright blue flame, stands a tall woman, clad in a large, heavy red armour, one rapier held tightly in her right hand, slashing the air around her, gusts of wind erupting with each slash, further driving the villains away from Izuku.

“I am Bradamante,” the new arrival, the Persona, intones, blood red eyes glaring at the villains in front of her, her short, her cheeks stained by a permanent, round blush, her crimson hair circled by a golden laurel crown, right as multi-coloured wings erupt from her back, looking almost as if they made of stained glass, the two flapping idly behind her as she slowly begins hovering above the ground.

“The winds of passion have never swayed me from my sacred duty, may my armour be a stalwart protector to my tired comrades,” She continues, entering a fighting stance, ready to slash out at the villains at a moment notice.

“And may my rapier pierce through my enemies’ hearts!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Pillar Men Theme is not required during the Gigas Arrival but is not exactly discouraged either.
> 
> Before anyone asks, Bradamante (OC Persona, Resistance to Wind, Weakness to Electric), who people might recognize from the Fate (Ugh) saga, is a fictional french paladin featured prominently in two "Italian" epic poems from the Renaissance, L'Orlando Innamorato and the Orlando Furioso, both incidentally inspired by the Chanson de Roland, a french epic about one specific paladin at the court of Charlemagne.
> 
> The Italian poems are all about how the titular Orlando/Roland gets cucked by a Muslim foot soldier, said foot soldier making Roland's hot Asian princess waifu fall in love with him by virtue of not being a fucking r*pist like more than half of the fucking Christian Paladins in the french army outside of, like Bradamante, and I'm pretty sure the guy that rides the hippogriff, so he grows mad with Incel-Like fury and starts trashing around the place naked. He is barely a side character compared to the real protagonist of the piece, OC do not steal Bradamante and her love interest Ruggero in this enemies to friends to lovers narrative the likes of you've never even heard of.
> 
> Anyway, Bradamante has a bigger and better role in the poem because her entire plot is about how she is a strong, independent christian paladin, but at the same time she is also really down to smash with this other Muslim Paladin, so she is thorn in between her duty as a knight and her love for the one who should be her enemy, but in the end she still follows her duty, even if she does end up marrying him after... winning her own hand in marriage at a tournament, it's a cool story, very romantic the Muslim paladin has a sister who is a buff lesbian who fucks 7 amazon warriors in a row during the same night, not the worst epic poem ever written.
> 
> So, we have an Italian Hero, and a Spanish "Hero," we are missing for other possible persona users, let's see... French... English... Viking maybe? Roman or Greek heroes, or at least ones who don't already have a persona?
> 
> Next chapter is a conclusion of the USJ incident, followed by some rank ups and some new bonds.
> 
> I'll probably do some "fillers" in between the USJ and the Sports Festival, in a sense that since days of the week pass in between them, that means Izuku is free to "explore" the "game world" (figuratively), which means we're getting, like... a whole chapter about Izuku strengthening his existing bonds and getting new personas via fusions and/or gacha games in a, like... supercut/"training montage" scenario.
> 
> Maybe even visit the Support Class to get in his request for a properly approved costume of course.
> 
> We're back to the scheduled programming at least till the first half of October, with University still being... uncertain due to the Crisis, I'll need to check on what classes I'll be able to follow and with which means, so there's that.


	9. Story Event: The USJ Incident, Part 2

“What. The fuck. Is another. FUCKING hero is doing here?!”

Shigaraki Tomura, the leader of the league of villains, the man behind the incursion on the USJ, the man who dreamed of murdering All Might, yells, nay, screams at the new arrival, the limits of his patience reached and shattered ages ago.

“God, you bastards are so annoying!” Shigaraki screams, scratching at his neck, hate filled glare aimed at the new arrival, “I was THAT fucking close to finally disintegrate one of those FUCKING Brats!”

“Be careful Shigaraki, I don’t seem to remember anyone matching her description from the staff files” Kurogiri warns his leader, hovering slightly off the ground behind him, ready to open a portal and forcefully shove him and the Nomu inside at the first sign of danger, “We have wasted enough time here, All Might isn’t here, and reinforcements are already arriving, we need to fall back before more security shows up and-”

Shigaraki completely ignores him as he rushes at the winged knight with a large leap, hands outstretched, only for Bradamante to prepare her rapier for a counterstrike.

He barely registers as the frog girl leaps further back, coming at the other girl’s side and forcibly carrying her away from the new “hero,” right as Bradamante unleashes her blade in front of her, cutting at the air in many, precise motions.

“Gale Slash!” She calls out, blades of wind erupting from each cut of her rapier, impacting against an airborne Shigaraki, unable to dodge, the crazed villain grunting in pain at the impact, barely registering as the blades of wind continue their path behind him, the Nomu easily tanking the most of it.

“Garu!” The knight calls out once again, flapping her wings off as new, stronger gales of wind erupt from her wings, impacting against Shigaraki and pushing him down on the ground with a second cry of pain, the wind pressure keeping him down and allowing the winged knight race above him, flying toward Izuku’s downed body.

“As if I’d let you do that.” Kurogiri simply points out, appearing right in front of Bradamante’s path, portal already open. She sways her flight mid-air, raising upwards, a confident smirk appearing on her lips as she readies her sword, right before launching herself down toward the Villain.

“Twin Shot!” She yells, two quick lunges of her sword aimed at the villain’s metal collar, Kurogiri’s eyes widening in worry as he hastily retreats away from her, the second lunge still nicking him in the collar, the Knight descending back down at Izuku’s side, wide, multi-coloured stained glass wings enlarging and covering them both.

“Media!” She calls out, bright light filling her form and descending onto Izuku, the bright light soon appearing onto Uraraka and Tsuyu, much to both girl’s amazement, replenishing their stamina and healing what little bruises they still had.

“W- what…” Izuku stammers out, coughing, bleary, barely focused eyes looking up at the figure kneeling at his side, her radiant smile as she looks down on him, a bright blush blossoming on his freckled cheeks.

“Nomu!” Shigaraki yells as he hoists himself up from the ground, wide, deranged yellow eyes glaring at the knight, the man having finally reached his limit, “I don’t CARE how you do it, just TEAR THAT BITCH APART!”

Before Bradamante can even react, the Nomu springs into action, one large fist impacting against her armoured midsection, the impact sending her flying off as the Nomu launches himself toward her, his hands grabbing at her wings and dropkicking her into the ground, attempting to tear her wings off of her.

One of the two girls huddling away from Shigaraki cries at the sight, doubling over, one hand going to her stomach, the other one hastily kneeling beside her in worry.

“Me- Media…” The knight coughs out, trying to pierce the Nomu’s thick, shock absorbing skin with her rapier and failing miserably at it, bright light washing over her, soon mirrored by the three students, only for another cry to erupt from her mouth after another particularly vicious stomp, soon mirrored by one of the students.

Shigaraki’s attention snaps back onto the two girls huddled a short distance in front of him, a vicious smile appearing on his face as the Nomu keeps on stomping the winged knight against the ground, one of the two girls coughing out blood in response.

“Oh, it’s not a new hero then…” Shigaraki mutters, already getting back on his feet, “It’s just this bitch’s Quirk. Let’s see if it still works when you are nothing but a rotting corpse!”

Shigaraki lunges at them once more, his hands outstretched and aiming at her head, right as the frog girl instantly leaps in between him and her friend, still doubled down on the ground in pain as her Quirk is getting stomped into the ground by Shigaraki’s Nomu, and then…

It all happens in an instant.

Before Shigaraki can even react, the young man, the one with the other, weird familiar Quirk, almost without even thinking, propels himself from his spot on the ground, leaving a crater behind, reaching a speed and a strength Shigaraki had never expected from him, right as he slides in between his legs, right in between his own trajectory toward the two girls, and simply… stands there, using his body as a shield, like an absolute moron.

Shigaraki smirks in triumph, already feeling his Quirk doing its dirty work on the foolish hero student in front of him, the seconds ticking, waiting for the tell-tale scream of dying flesh erupting from him…

Only for no reaction to happen.

“What.” Shigaraki deadpans, the battered, hard breathing young man apparently… fine, right in front of him, his hands squeezing fruitlessly at the young man’s head, his green, glowing eyes staring straight into him, terrorized, lost, horrified yet so familiar.

Shigaraki looks wildly around him, quickly averting his gaze from him, almost expecting Eraserhead to still be there, his eyes wide as he realizes that his Quirk isn’t working right now, and he doesn’t know why.

He growls in frustration, teeth gnawing, his hands descending onto the student’s neck and squeezing, choking him for dear life, his terrorized eyes already watering as he glares at him with a feral growl.

“I don’t care how you are doing this, but I don’t need a Quirk to murder one fucking brat!”

And then, gently, almost languidly, something whispers in his right ear, a soft, mischievous voice almost caressing his very mind.

“ ** _Ara Ara~,_** ” The whisper giggles, and for the first time in his life ever since he was reborn in what he was now, Shigaraki feels dread, pooling straight in his stomach, and running all the way up his spine toward his brain, his hands growing stiff, almost trembling, his hold on the student’s neck loosening slightly, “You’ve been such a… bad, bad boy today, Shigaraki Tomura… Did you mommy ever tell you that you should never choke someone without their consent?”

Shigaraki’s breath catches in his throat, barely registering as the student he was just trying to strangle to death crawls away from his grasp, backing off toward the two young women behind him, his wide, terror-stricken eyes still fixated onto him.

“It seems you need to be punished accordingly, you naughty boy…” The… the voice, the _demon_ whispers back, leathery wings flapping as she hovers right above the young boy, Shigaraki’s hands freeing him as he tries to crawls back away from her, his eyes wide with primal, unexpected terror, right as she lunges at his own head, her gloved hands grabbing at the sides of his head, and _squeezing_...

“Don’t you worry now, and let Big Sister Succubus do all the nasty thinking for you…” She giggles out, a wide, impossibly wide smile on her face, Shigaraki barely registering Kurogiri shout toward him as everything slowly starts going blank.

“Marin Karin.”

* * *

“DON’T WORRY STUDENTS,” A booming voice reverberates through the USJ, right as All Might erupts from the main entrance, still in his formal clothes, a hard scowl fixed on his face, “FOR I AM HERE!”

He had just passed Young Iida on the way in, the young man telling him everything he had witnessed during the day, All Might’s mood getting worser and worser with every word, only to find some of the other, scattered students right outside the USJ, frantically calling for help on their phones, the unconscious, heavily damaged bodies of Thirteen and Eraserhead lying there at their feet, some of them fretting on them, trying to take into account what little first aid they knew.

The students mood has instantly lifted at his arrival, Young Ashido instantly going at his side, worrying about young Uraraka, telling him a similar story from Young Iida, about how one of the villains, a shapeshifting one it seemed, had taken over her form before turning into a giant monster and kidnapping her in front of their powerless eyes.

And now, after almost getting begged by his students to save their friends, All Might is finally in the USJ, his eyes scanning the situation in front of him.

The villains seem to have been all been dealt with, their bodies scattered around the large square. It takes not even a fraction of a second for the Number One hero to descend the stairs toward the square beneath, and check on the villains’ conditions, the criminals still alive if seemingly passed out for good, even if some appeared to be in critical condition.

He doesn’t have time to worry about the villains, his transformation limited, his attention scanning around the place, only to finally notice, on the edge of the large square, his successor, his student, Izuku Midoriya, breath ragged, barely standing, trembling as he places himself in between two of his classmates, one of them fallen to the ground in a fetal position, the other exchanging wide eyed stares between both of her friends, seemingly at a loss for words.

One of the villains, hands grotesquely scattered around his body, is standing right in front of them, seemingly motionless, as another villain, a winged lady in a… frankly inappropriate costume is hovering right beside him, draped around his shoulder, right as another villain was crushing an armoured winged figure into the ground, All Might readily assuming that must have been one of Izuku’s new personas.

It takes another fraction of a second for All Might to come and grab at his students, a startled yelp escaping their mouths as he drops them far away from the villains, his rush toward the exit of the USJ unfortunately stopped by the appearance of a large, expanding black void appearing in front of his path.

“Shigaraki Tomura is compromised,” The mist villain, simply states with almost a resigned tone, “It seems I’ll have to take matters into my own hands then and try to salvage this... disaster of a mission.”

“Now, Nomu, if you please…”

The large, monstrous villain erupts from the portal, All Might barely having the time to throw his students away toward safety as he clashes with the beaked creature, their hands clashing as they try to overwhelm each other with sheer brute strength.

“AH AH, IMPRESSIVE STRENGHT… FOR AN AMATEUR!” All Might boasts, his mouth taking an instinctive, fixed smile, completely aware of the three student’s horrified stares aimed at him, his body aching as his muscles scream under the strength of the enormous enemy, “I’M ALMOST FEELING THIS!”

“The symbol of peace, as foolhardy and arrogant as we all remember you” The mist villain drawls out, completely ignoring his words, even as All Might’s knees buckle, “Let’s see if you really are as weak as they all say.”

All Might’s footing is lost, right as he slowly sinks within a dark portal, the pro hero gritting his teeth in pain as he sinks in, only to come out on the top of the USJ, the Nomu following closely behind, their clash broken as he falls right on top of him. His large arms envelop the hero, barely giving him the time to react as the two crash toward the ground below.

All Might grits his teeth, bracing for impact, his incredible strength doing little to break free of the Nomu’s hold on him, right as the ground comes faster and faster toward him, until…

An armoured figure crashes right against them mid fall, the impact throwing them off course, momentum dying as they are thrown off, separated, the flying knight easily grabbing at All Might’s body as if he weighted nothing, and carrying him bridal style away from the villain.

“AH, YOU MUST BE ONE OF YOUNG MIDORIYA’S NEW PERSONAS!” All Might cheerfully points out, smiling at his impromptu saviour as she gently drops him down on the plaza, several feet away from the crashed villain, “SPLENDID WORK, THEY REALLY GOT ME IN A PINCH THERE!”

The Persona doesn’t say anything, simply falling to her knees after her impromptu save, before fading away in bright, blue flame, right as Midoriya hastily reaches Young Uraraka’s side, the poor girl starting to spew rainbows out of her mouth right in the middle of the battlefield.

“Ah, just… A minor setback, one that we will easily-” A cold chill runs through everyone’s spine as damp, invasive ice slowly starts spreading around the field, Kurogiri hastily hovering off the ground as more students show up, the Nomu, crashed against the ground as he was, slowly enveloped in a cold prison.

“No one kills the symbol of peace on my watch,” Young Todoroki says in a cold monotone, ice spreading faster around the square, Shigaraki’s feet now embed in cold, merciless ice, spreading up, the villain barely registering anything as he keeps standing motionless, as the winged lady keeps whispering sweet nothing in his ear.

The mist villain seems to take stock of the situation at hand, one familiar head of purple hair standing beside the new arrival currently freezing their Nomu, his eyes fixed on him, as well as the completely out of it Shigaraki close by.

“I think we should-”

“THERE YOU ARE!”

The mist villain is tackled by another of All Might’s precious students, slammed down on the ground before he can even react to anything.

“They don’t pay me enough for this shit.” The Mist Villain grumbles, Young Bakugou’s hand tightly holding him by his iron collar, ready to unleash an explosion on him any second.

“Well, tell that to the supervillain union then, because I don’t FUCKING care!” Bakugou snarls, a deranged smile on his lips as he holds the villain down, “And don’t you dare move a muscle or I’ll start blasting you to kingdom come!”

The Mist Villain simply sighs, a whistle coming out of his… well, mist, as the Nomu simply breaks free of the ice prison he had been encased in, even as he ended up losing his arms to frostbite in the process, the monster standing back, his maw open and wide.

“W- what the hell!” Young Shinso curses out, everyone’s eyes suddenly on the monster as he slowly begins regenerating his limbs back.

“The Nomu has been enhanced with several powerful Quirk, among them, as you can see, super regeneration,” The Mist villain simply begins explaining in a tired tone, “You will not hold it down with such mere parlour tricks.”

The mist villain cries out in pain as an explosion blasts his collar, the villain gritting his teeth.

“I said DON’T DO ANYTHING, AND THAT INCLUDES TALKING!” Young Bakugou yells, red, hate filled eyes glaring down on the villain beneath him, seemingly ignored by the villain.

“N- Nomu, the mission is a bust, get-” Kurogiri is interrupted by another explosion, his collar denting, the villain crying in pain, “Get us out of here!”

The Nomu reacts instantly, launching himself at Shigaraki, startling the winged lady from her whispering as she flies away, the dazed villain stumbling at the sudden loss of contact, right as the giant monster grabs at him by the midsection and

“u-Uh, what the-” Shigaraki stammers out as he is forcefully picked up by the monster in a fireman carry, his glazed eyes focusing instantly back on the situation at hand as he turns his head toward the Nomu’s direction, finally laying his gaze upon All Might, “YOU!”

All Might instantly jumps in between the speeding villain and his student holding the villain down, the only one with enough reaction timing and speed to even begin moving.

“DETROIT SMASH!” All Might yells, a One for All empowered punch already launched against the villain, air blasts following suit, only to barely stagger it, the giant villain ready to take him head on, even with his crazed leader on his shoulder.

“NOMU, FORGET ALL PREVIOUS ORDERS AND MURDER HIM, MURDER THE FUCKING SYMBOL OF PEACE!” Shigaraki yowls, completely losing it, punching at the villain’s back with his fists with every word, “WE’RE SO FUCKING CLOSE COME ON!”

All Might can only cross his arms in front of himself, bracing for Impact, as the Nomu’s fist manages to hit him square in his defence, blood coughing from his mouth at the strength, only for Shigaraki to wiggle out of the Nomu’s shoulder and leap high above him, hands outstretched and open, not aimed at the symbol of peace, but the student behind him.

All Might doesn’t even have the time to react, pain shooting all over his body as a second fist hits his crumbling defence, as Young Kirishima leaps and tackles an unaware Bakugou out of the villain’s path, dropping right on top of him a few feet later, as Shigaraki drops on the ground below, the Mist Villain having the good sense to scatter away from him.

This. unfortunately, leaves All Might’s back wide open for Shigaraki to strike, the villain reaching with an open palm right onto his left side.

All Might screams in pain as he can feel his wound disintegrating under the villain’s touch, blood coming out of his mouth as he hastily dodges to his right, one of the Nomu’s fists missing wide and almost hitting Shigaraki in the face.

One of All Might’s hands go to his side, his breathing haggard, his smile strained.

“Then it is true, the symbol of peace really is wounded…” Shigaraki cackles, a chill running down All Might’s spine at his words, “I think it’s time to put you out of your misery you government dog, I’m sure it will do-”

“Shigaraki Tomura, don’t you think you’ve been a little bitch long enough?”

Shigaraki stops, almost freezes, nails scratching at his neck in absolute, abject, barely contained rage as he turns toward the direction of the Mist Villain’s voice.

“Kurogiri, do you have… a FUCKING Deathwish or-” Shigaraki snarls, his brain tilting to a halt as he realizes, idly, that Kurogiri happened to be in a complete different direction than where the voice had come from, only for all free will to be once again cut off of him, yellow eyes going blank.

“Before any of these knuckleheads ruin this for me again,” Young Shinso says triumphantly, his support item whirring on his mouth, mimicking the Mist Villain’s voice “Now, go and kill that fucking monstrosity you call Nomu.”

With stiff, almost robotics movements, Shigaraki stomps toward the nearby Nomu, the mindless beast looking at his owner in confusion, ready for further orders, completely unaware of his incoming death.

“Oh no you don’t.” The Mist Villain says as a dark portal appears under the Nomu, dropping him right behind Young Shinso, Shigaraki stumbling forward, his hands finding nothing to decay, “Now, kill the annoying mind control brat Nomu if you please…”

Young Shinso’s eyes widen as he can feel the monster raising his fist, up in the hair, his gaze turning toward All Might, the young hero student looking lost and fearful, barely able to move as the monster’s fist begins his descent toward him.

All Might leaps before he can react, wounded as he is, overcoming his frail body’s limits as he hastily shoves Young Shinso away from harm, barely registering as the winged lady from before grabs him mid-air before he can hit the ground, easily escorting him to safety, one fist hitting at the villain’s chest, barely making him stumble, followed by more and more punches, one faster, stronger than the other, the embers of his power cruising in his veins, empowering him even as the Nomu hastily counterattacks, immovable object meeting unstoppable force, evenly matched even as the constant iron-like taste of blood taints All Might’s mouth.

Kurogiri has appeared at Shigaraki’s side, dropping him in a portal only to make him reappear a few feet off the ground, the shock of the fall snapping him out of Young Shinso’s brainwashing.

They might appear locked in endless combat, even as the students cheer him on, keeping themselves away from the onslaught, but All Might is running on fumes right now, barely holding is transformation together, he needs something, a boost, help, anything to survive this, let alone overcome the villain.

All might coughs blood, his onslaught weakening only a little, his wound aching at his side, worsened by the recent decay he had been subjected to, and the Nomu takes it as an Opportunity to give him the final strike, fist raised high into the air, aiming at All Might’s head, and he knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is the end for him.

The Symbol of Peace is about to fall.

Yagi Toshinori is about to get himself killed, right in front of his own, powerless students.

All Might would laugh at the irony of it all if it wasn’t so damn painful even just to keep breathing.

And then, suddenly…

The Nomu stops, his eyes aimed at something behind him, and All Might can’t help but turn, if only slightly, only to come face to face with yet another repeat from his past.

“Persona!” Young Midoriya yells with never seen before urgency, eyes wide, staring at his hero, knowing full well about his true conditions, the winged lady who had brought Young Shinso at his side disappearing, replaced by the familiar form of Quixote, All Might’s eyes widening as he sees it burning in bright, green flame of One for All, the knight already running at incredible speeds toward them as he grabs Young Midoriya, taking him away from Young Asui’s grasp as she attempts to not get him killed by his own foolhardy heroism, green flames encapsulating Persona and user both.

“NEW HAMPSHIRE…” Young Midoriya yells as he and his persona leap into the hair, Quixote throwing him up in the air, much like during the 50-meter dash, Quixote’s lance already at hand, ready to smash.

“BASH!”

The wooden lance impacts against Midoriya with never seen before strength, a loud snap echoing around the USJ as Izuku is thrown downward toward the three villains, a shockwave echoing around the USJ as he descends on them like a meteor, All Might hastily disengaging from a stunned Nomu as he dumbly looks up at the incoming missile in wonder.

The Mist Villain opens a dark portal in between Young Midoriya’s trajectory, only for the young student to simply dodge it mid-air, almost as if he was zipping around, redirecting himself toward the large monster once more, his Persona’s own momentum carried over as he vaults over the Nomu, lance put and aimed at Shigaraki’s head.

“I fucking hate this school,” Shigaraki growls, right as his partner has the common sense to make a grab at him, hastily opening a dark portal for them to run into, disappearing form sight as Quixote crashes against the ground in a heap of glowing knight and horse, quickly disappearing into green flame, Young Midoriya’s own glow burning brighter than ever.

With a loud cry, Young Midoriya barrels toward the awaiting Nomu, his entire body curled into a ball and glowing in bright green light as it smashes against the villain’s head, the impact demolishing him straight into the ground alongside Izuku, a large crater erupting under it as they go further beyond, digging down the concrete of the USJ’s main square, tremors pervading the whole dome, the nearby fountain exploding in the process, All Might’s students trying to get as fast as possible away from the drop radius of Young Midoriya’s devastating attack.

All Might is the only one who stands his ground, and even then barely, quickly retreating back as the radius of the smash grow larger and larger, right as the monster is reduced to a dark pulp, splattered against the crater under Young Midoriya’s might, crater now deep several feet in and wide almost the entire square, Young Midoriya’s bright glow, slowly fading, leaving his broken, exhausted body behind, right in the middle of the crater.

“I- I did it…” Izuku can only breath out, his limbs broken and bent into a weird angle, what was left of the Nomu’s body becoming a black, motionless gloop beneath Izuku’s destroyed body, soon seeping back inside the ground’s crater without so much of a squelch, All Might’s barely hanging on his transformation as he drops down toward his successor, fortunately too supernaturally exhausted to feel the excruciating pain he must be in right now.

“I s- saved my… Hero…”

And then, with everything was said and done, the worst had finally passed, and his entire body and soul sacrificed in order to save his new friends, his mentor… His mentor who could do nothing to protect him from the dangers of the wide world out there, from the dangers he had brought to UA…

The cavalry finally arrives, lead by one Iida Tenya.

And Young Midoriya can finally pass out from the excruciating pain he is in.

* * *

In a small bar hidden away somewhere outside of the heroes’ reach, Shigaraki Tomura is throwing a temper tantrum, hands grabbing at thing and decaying, trashing the place under his colleague’s unimpressed stare.

“I hope insurance will cover this.” Kurogiri sighs, standing near the blank screen sitting in his pub, back in his bartender clothes.

“It seems we have run into some… unforeseen problems Sensei,” Kurogiri meekly informs the screen, “While we have managed to strike fear into the hearts of those… hero students by wounding their symbol of peace, it appeared some of them have easily managed to overcome the pawns we hired to keep them in check, and have given us more troubles than we expected.”

“No need to worry Kurogiri,” The voice, garbled and distorted, comes from the blank screen aside Kurogiri, “As long as our Nomu is safe, I’m sure no seatback will be to great for us not to overcome it.”

An awkward silence fills the bar, only interrupted by Shigaraki’s screams of rage and trashing of the place, Kurogiri wishing very hard to be anywhere else but there right now.

“Because the Nomu is safe, right Kurogiri?” The man behind the screen says after a long pause, “Where is the Nomu Kurogiri, the culmination of decades of research specifically designed to annihilate the symbol of peace?”

Kurogiri slowly gulps, “Well, you see Master… it appears that, during the Nomu’s fight against All Might, one of the students… annihilated it with his Quirk.”

Another, tense filled silence, and then…

“Oh?”

Kurogiri’s knees buckle, but only slightly, his hands going at his collar and adjusting his tie.

“Y-yes Sensei, the strength of his powers was so powerful, I had to warp myself and Shigaraki away from it before it caught us in the blast radius with it.” He explains, instantly noticing the heavy atmosphere all around him, trying to maintain a shred of dignity, “That was only the last of a long series of… situations we’ve had to run through today, as I’m sure Shigaraki Tomura will be glad to explain to you.”

Hearing his name, Shigaraki turns toward the screen and Kurogiri, growling, nails scratching at his neck, Kurogiri giving out one, small sigh of relief as his master’s attention diverts toward his colleague.

“Those fucking… cheaters!” He yells, rushing toward the screen, “Increasing their numbers with all those fucking… things, messing with MY MIND with those bullshit brainwashing Quirks TWICE… HELL, one of them even turned into a fucking giant monster spewing out all that shitty piss-coloured fog!”

“A… giant monster emitting fog you say?” The man behind the screen interjects, his tone suddenly getting a hint of interest, “How… peculiar, please, tell me more Shigaraki, your sensei is all ears.”

“What’s to tell…” Shigaraki grumbles, gritting his teeth in frustration, shambling his feet like a petulant child, “One of those… bastards turned into this giant fucking abomination that started vomiting out all those fog, we couldn’t fucking see anything, then next thing I know, I’m on the FUCKING ceiling!”

“The girl… it was the same with the Familiar Quirk,” Kurogiri interjects, his yellow eyes frowning as he suddenly remembers, “The one who was linked to that winged knight, the one trying to save the other boy with a similar Quirk… In fact, the same knight who had saved All Might from the Nomu the first time, right before disappearing…”

“Oh really?” The man behind the screen says, a chill running down Kurogiri’s spine as he can almost feel the wide smile in his tone, “A boy with the power to rival my Nomu… And a girl turning into a giant monster spewing… yellow fog… How peculiar indeed, for it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same it seems…”

“What are we going to do now!?” Shigaraki yells out, teeth gritted, “Our Nomu is lost, the Symbol of Peace is still standing, and we’ve lost our League of Villains to a bunch of brats!”

“And yet, it seems today’s outing has not been all for naught,” The man behind the screen chuckles softly, “Have heart Shigaraki, this might not have been the… _Blitzkrieg_ we expected, but we should have not expected to finish our war in a simple day…”

“We must build our armies, unite under our banners individuals who will follow our ideology unquestioningly,” The man continues, his tone soon turning to the fanatical, “And then, once again, when he least expects it…”

“The symbol of peace will crumble, crumble under the weight and greed of the same people he is trying to protect, as we convert their hearts and souls to our holy cause.”

-

“Oh dear, I can’t let you out of my sight for one, single day without making a new disaster uh?”

The dulcet tones of the Velvet Room wake Izuku from his slumber, Anna’s scolding barely covering them as he blinks around, sitting as he is on his Sofa in the Velvet room.

“What are we ever going to do with you, kiddo?” Remus caws in with a resigned sigh, “You’re just as bull-headed as him, breaking all your limbs juts to give a dying man a couple more years to live… Nonsense!”

Izuku’s eyes widen, staring down at his body… Only to notice only now his… gaseous form, only one hand visible from the white cloud composing his being.

“That little stunt of yours almost irreparably damaged your soul you know?” Remus continues from his perch, glaring down at Izuku, “First with the Angel almost getting disintegrated, and next with One for All, I’m serious kid, it’s a miracle we are even talking with each other right now and you are not on a one way trip to the great beyond, and not even all in one piece!”

“Oh, leave the kid alone Featherbrain, you know we would have all done the same thing as him had we been in his place,” Anna says with a barely concealed smile, her gaze turning toward Izuku, “Still Kiddo, you should take better care of yourself, your life is important you know? There are people out there who love you, people who would get really upset if you were to leave them so soon…”

Izuku’s mood sobers at their words, trying to look as small as he can even in the form of a gaseous white cloud with a hand as he is.

“Still kid, you managed to do well for yourself today… given the circumstances, gained allies, saved heroes…” Anna continues, her tone thick with emotion, hastily gulping down at her saliva, “And even managed to get six personas out of the six available slots you have! Congrats kid, you’ll begin fusing them into something stronger in no time!”

“Oh, our esteemed guest should first wait to return to us in the waking world before we can truly begin in our work,” Igor interjects, enigmatic grin plastered on his face, as he peers at Izuku’s form, “Especially not now, with his soul in such a… unfortunate state.”  
Izuku would apologize if he had a mouth to talk with, his only hand going to where his neck is supposed to be and sheepishly scratching and nothing.

“Oh, but we must not let our guest dally too much today…” Igor continues, completely ignoring Izuku as if he wasn’t there, “After all, he still has more appointments to take today, in this world between dream and reality, we best not hold him here further…”

Izuku furrows his brows, or at least tries to now that he doesn’t have brows anymore, a small yip barking from behind him, the young man turning his… gaseous form toward it.

The sofa, the table, his attendant, his friend, even Igor fade away, Izuku now finding himself face to face with a strange animal.

It’s a red fox, a pink apron tied at her neck, scars and old wounds covering her body, sitting right in front of him in the Velvet Room, staring deep into the gaseous form that currently composes his body.

The fox barks again, eyes closing, and Izuku can almost swear it’s smiling, almost thanking him, only for it to trot toward him, circling his gaseous form, sniffing at him, before more pleased yips escaping its mouth.

Izuku doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know how to react, not now as the Fox keeps yipping and barking at him, keeps jumping all around him as if he was an old friend, the young man trembling slightly even in his damaged, barely held together gaseous form.

The fox seems to notice the young man’s discomfort, yipping once again, right as a green leaf is regurgitated by the Fox straight into Izuku’s gaseous body, a warm, refreshing feeling of safety washing over him, squashing down his natural disgust at the action as he feels his form returning, a weariness he didn’t know he had slowly drifting away from his mind.

The fox yips once again, Izuku’s consciousness fading as he slowly returns to the world of the living, and he can hear a new voice, confident and so sure of himself, echo around the walls of the velvet room, right as Izuku leaves the room, right as the fox fades away.

“She said this one was a special, onetime offer,” the voice says, an echo of a shadow of a distant memory, words soon forgotten by Izuku’s addled mind, even as they keep talking to him in their enigmatic, soft tones, “Oh, and remember to bring at least some offers to the temple this time around, wouldn’t want a repeat of the last three times now, wouldn’t we?”

* * *

Izuku wakes up with a start, the dream slowly fading away from his memory, only to find himself on one of the very own beds of UA’s very own infirmary.

“Oh dear, that was fast,” Recovery Girl says as she frets over the other bed at Izuku’s side, not even turning to look at the recently awoken hero student, “Didn’t even have the time to use my Quirk on you yet...”

“D- Deku!” Uraraka yells, still in her hero costume as she munches on the free fruit gummies on her own infirmary bed, right besides Izuku’s, trying to hastily get off the bed to go at Izuku’s side, only to be stopped by the diminutive nurse’s cane.

“Now now dearie, you still need your rest now, no need to get yourself all worked up on nothing,” Recovery Girl chides a sheepish Uraraka, bonking softly over her head with her cane, “Wouldn’t want you to pass out again due to exhaustion now, wouldn’t we.”

“Of course not, Recovery Girl…” Uraraka concedes with a sheepish chuckle, her ever-present blush slightly deepening, earning an approving nod from the diminutive nurse.

“What… what happened?” Izuku mutters out, only for all sleepiness to instantly leave his body, his eyes widening, memories from the day rushing back onto him in an instant, staring down at his body, once broken and shattered, now whole and functioning again, if still incredibly sore “How… How did I…”

“Beats me, dearie…” Recovery Girl mutters as she waddles at his side, “For all intents and purposes, you should be dead right now.”

Izuku sputters at the sudden revelation, almost missing Uraraka’s own gasp of horror as he starts checking once again over his miraculously healed body, his bones and muscles sore and aching, but still functioning, still working, before turning back toward the small nurse, the older woman walking on a convenient stool, examining Izuku’s body with a pensive hum.

“My my, this is a miracle,” Recovery Girl gasps, looking at the readings on few machines hooked up on him, eyes squinted slightly “A miraculous recovery with barely one hour of sleep, form injuries that for all intents and purposes should have left you paralyzed for life. There must be someone up there who must really love you, dearie…”

Izuku sheepishly chuckles, right as more sweet gummy bears are offered to him, his eyes moving past behind the nurse, toward Uraraka, her own eyes wide as she stares back at him, as if he was going to fall over any second.

“Oh well, it seems neither of you is under any more risk of lapsing into a coma today,” Recovery Girl simply chuckles out, hopping off her stool and moving to the infirmary doors, “I’ll be going to the next room over for a while, going to check on All Might’s own injuries - Do not worry Dearie he is fine, nothing my Quirk can’t handle – you two better stay put for another couple hours, then you’ll be free to go.”

“Try not to tire yourselves too much now, and take all the rest you need,” Recovery Girl chirps out as she opens the infirmary door, “and please, keep it down, there are other patients nearby and you have no idea of how thin those walls are.”

Recovery Girl closes the door behind her, leaving the three proved, exhausted, and probably traumatized after the day’s events teenagers in there, alone, a world of questions hanging around them.

Izuku is the first one to talk.

“Did they… did they tell you how is everyone else doing? The… the teachers, our friends?” Izuku asks, hands fisting the soft covers above him in worry, a thick lump forming in his troath “Did anyone else…”

“QWe were the only ones that had to be brought here, don’t worry,” Uraraka answers him with a small, gentle smile “Mr Aizawa and Thirteen are… also fine, I’ve heard they’ve been brought to a hospital, and according to Recovery Girl they seem to be both be in stable conditions right now.”

“Oh, thank god…” Izuku breaths out, a weight he didn’t know he was carrying lifting off his shoulders, sighing in relief at Tsuyu’s words.

“So… Midoriya…” Uraraka continues in a strained, forcefully chipper tone, averting her eyes from her friend’s face, “Crazy day uh? Villains and monsters and… people saying they are me… Who could have predicted this day would have gone this way uh?”

She trails off, her eyes moving to Izuku’s form, the young man trying to shrink into himself and shy away from her, looking down at his ends, his eyes not meeting neither of theirs.

“Deku?” Uraraka whispers, furrowing her brows in confusion “Is… is something wrong?”

Izuku flinches, a long breath escaping his lips as he steels himself, raising his gaze from his hands and turning toward his friend.

“Ok…” Izuku breaths out, trying and failing to calm his jittering, gulping loudly as a nervous chuckle escapes his mouth, “Ok… So… I have not been… entirely honest with you Uraraka… with any of you…”

“What do you mean Deku?” Uraraka can only ask, her confusion is so palpable question marks might as well start floating above her head, “Honest with us? Why wouldn’t you be honest with us?”

Izuku flinches back at her question, steeling his nerves for the revelation to come.

“Back… back during the incident, Tsuyu-” Izuku begins, pointedly ignoring Uraraka’s mini heart attack at such informality coming from his mouth, “Tsuyu realized… realized that I had something to do… with the incident...”

Uraraka’s gasp is so loud Izuku is pretty sure his mom back home just heard it.

“W- What?” She almost yells, almost, realizing in time of the place she and her friends just found themselves in, not wanting to disturb the nearby infirmary rooms, “That’s… that’s insane Deku, there’s no way you had anything to do with… any of this mess! How dare she-!”

“No no, she is… she is right.” Izuku hastily interrupts her, his hands going up in surrender, Uraraka’s words dying in her mouth as she stares at him, “I… I had nothing to do with the villains but… I am the one who caused those monsters to show up and... and attack us…”

Uraraka’s breath catches in her throat, and Izuku is on a roll now, he can’t stop talking, won’t stop talking in fear of what she might say to him.

“Like… Tsuyu… Tsuyu figured something out, and m- made me promise to tell her everything later, when things stopped being so… so hectic, and I’m planning to do it… heck, I’m planning to reveal everything to the class, to our teachers… maybe even the police if it comes to that but…”

Izuku gulps down his anxieties and his speed, mind going a mile a minute as every single worst-case scenario piles up in his mind.

“But I feel… I feel you should be the first to learn this from me…” Izuku concludes, his strength leaving him, “Especially after… all the times you got hurt because of me.”

Even as overwhelmed as she is by the day she had just gone through, and Izuku’s cryptic half confession, Uraraka has always been smarter than people had ever given her credit for, her eyes widening as she gasps, her mind instantly connecting the dots.

“The entrance exam…” She breaths out, her eyes fixed on Izuku’s, the young man hastily averting his gaze from her, “Those… those monsters, the ones coming out of the Zero-Pointer… did you… did you put them there?”

Izuku shrinks further into himself, trying to hide himself from Uraraka almost… betrayed gaze.

“I… I don’t know…” He stammers out, his voice trembling, “My… My Quirk… My Quirk summons creatures out of… out of this large… dimension of mystical creatures, monsters and other such creatures that were created by… by humans, a long time ago, to populate our… our stories and dreams and sometimes… sometimes, when I am in a… stressful situation… when I’m nervous or scared… like, really, really scared… When the people around me are feeling… strong emotions… something else also comes out.”

“These monsters…” Uraraka says, her face unreadable, “And… the other me too?”

“They… they call them Shadows…” Izuku continues, “My… My Personas do at least, they are… fractures of the Human Psyche from what I understand, all our worst traits, our unspoken desires, hidden away in the back of everyone’s minds, and they all use… My Quirk… to come out into our world…”

“Oh, so that’s what she was.” Uraraka says with a shrug, relaxing back into her bed with a sigh, “She was just… the me I could never face back then, no big deal…”

Izuku turns toward his friend, a small, melancholic smile appearing on her lips.

“You... You are not angry at me?” He asks, his voice small, “I… I put you all in danger…”

“Ah, nope, none of that now,” Uraraka interjects, her usual peppy mood going back in full force, “The villains put us all in danger, you simply reacted to it like a normal human being and got scared, it’s not your fault if your Quirk has this… awful side effect, you’ll just need to control it better!”

“S- Side effect?” Izuku asks, furrowing his brows in confusion at his friend’s words, “I… I wouldn’t call this exactly a “side effect” really…”

“I mean, duh?” Uraraka says with a chuckle, “It’s a Quirk, all Quirks have side effects or draw backs. I start vomiting rainbows if I use mine too much, Aoyama’s stomach starts hurting if he uses his too much, and you just happen to be a magnet for, well… creepy mind monsters when you’re surrounded by overtly emotional people, no big deal!”

“So, no Deku, I’m not angry at you,” Uraraka says with a small smile, a faint blush covering her cheeks, mirrored on Izuku’s own, “In fact, all I am is just… confused really…”

“Confused? On what?” Izuku asks as he furrows his brows.

“I… I just want to know… what happened to the other me?” Uraraka asks with a sheepish chuckle, “You know, after she disappeared, right after she turned into that gorgeous warrior woman with a sword…”

“She… turned into someone else?” Izuku asks, his own memories of the fight still hazy, an image of a large, winged woman protecting him and healing him suddenly coming to his mind.

“Oh yeah, and she… I? Us? Whatever, she was so freaking cool Deku!” Uraraka begins saying with a wide smile, “She healed you, she fought against those villains… Heck, she even saved All Might at one point, she was so awesome… I mean, yeah, then that Villain wiped the floor with her, that super sucked, especially since her pain was also kinda transmitted towards me, and it got really scary then when the villain tried to kill me with his Quirk, but then You arrived and saved me again! That was also so freaking cool Deku!”

Izuku’s eyes widen as his mind connect the dots for him,

“No… way…”

“Deku?” Uraraka interjects with a frown, her good mood fading as she looks back at her friend in worry, “Deku, what’s wrong?”

“Uraraka…” Izuku begins, taking great care in carefully enunciating every syllable, “Uraraka, can you please do an… experiment for me right now? It’s… it’s kind of important…”

“An… experiment?” Uraraka asks, her brows furrowed, “I mean… sure I guess, what do I need to do?”

“Can you… push your right hand forward, palm up…” Izuku begins explaining, Uraraka following his instruction with a frown, “Now… think about… the other you, about the form she had taken after she changed form… and say the word “Persona.””

“You mean your activation word Deku?” Uraraka asks in a uncertain tone, “Why would I…”

“Can you… do that for me?” Izuku asks once again, slowly gulping, trying to convey the urgency of his request in his words, “Please? I need… I need to test this…”

Uraraka simply stares at him with wide eyes, her brow furrowing as she looks back at her outstretched hand, the word coming easily to her mouth, as if she had always known her all her life.

“Persona?”

Blue flame erupts in her hand, heatless, almost illusory, still freaking Uraraka out as she shrieks, as one usually does when their hand spontaneously catches on fire.

Not even a second later, the flame is gone, and in its place, a pale, blue card remains, the picture of the knight, of the form the other her had taken back then, standing valiantly with her rapier in hand, pointing it at the sky.

Uraraka sits completely still for one second, only for a scream to tear itself from her mouth, loud and filled with terror, as she throws the card as far away from her as she can, blue flame erupting out of it as it disappears into thin air.

A heavy silence pervades the room, the two teens’ heavy breathings the only thing audible in there, as they both keep staring at Uraraka’s right hand, still outstretched in front of her.

“P- Persona?”

Uraraka calls out once again, just to check if it wasn’t a fluke or something, but nope, here is once again the offending card appearing in her extended hand, innocently sitting there like there was nothing wrong in the world.

“Oh my god this… this is incredible…” Izuku mutters out, eyes wide and fixed on… on Uraraka’s freaking Persona Card of all things, his astonished look easily mirrored by Uraraka’s own eyes, “My Quirk… My Quirk... My Quirk was passed over to you!”

“W- What… There’s… There’s no way!” Uraraka yells, one hand going to her sheets and grabbing at them, easily making them go weightless, “See, I still have my Quirk, and I’ve never heard of Quirks who could be passed over to someone…”

“They… They exist…” Izuku stammers out with a slow gulp, trying to skirt between the dangerous terrain residing between the truth he could reveal, and the one that wasn’t his to reveal, “They are… They are very rare, in fact, they say there might be just one of them among all Quirks in every given generation, but I’ve... I’ve heard of them… It’s possible…”

“S- Still…” Uraraka stammers, suddenly freaking out, “How… what… what does this even mean? How would I explain this? That I have… a part of you inside of me now or something?”

Izuku’s cheeks turn very red at Uraraka’s words, her own cheeks mirroring his in an instant as she realizes what she had just said to him.

“You… You know what I mean!” Uraraka yells out, averting his gaze from him, “But… what does it mean for you now? Did I… Did I steal your Quirk or something?”

“N- No, I don’t think it’s that easy…” Izuku says, trying to calm his own mounting nerves as he analyses the situation “I can still feel On- I can still feel my own Quirk, nestled deep within my core, I don’t think this is neither you parasitizing on my Quirk, nor me giving my… power away from you…”

“Then what is this thing!” Uraraka yells, agitating her card around. Izuku drops off his bed, ignoring his sore muscles and aching bones as he goes at Uraraka’s bedside, his eyes focused, completely ignoring her startled yip as he grabs his shaking hand in his, holding it in between his as he started scanning her Persona’s card.

The card was the same colour as Quixote’s, a different, yet almost identical shade of blue than Angel’s card, as if they were from the same set but not quite, a large 6 in roman numerals indicating her Arcana’s number, right next to the persona’s name, Bradamante.

Taking the card in his hands without much resistance from her, his brows furrowed in concentration, Izuku could easily see the Persona’s stats, ST, MA and AG towering over the relatively lower EN and LU, a somewhat perfect mirror to Quixote’s own stat distribution. The persona seemed to have a resistance to Wind, as well as a weakness to electricity, much like Uraraka’s shadow used to.

Swiping to the right reveals the Persona’s level, 12, 3 levels Higher than Quixote’s meagre 9, his highest-level persona, as well as well as her abilities, Media, Garu, Gale Slash and Twin Shot, with Elec Wall coming at Level 14.

All in all, it seems like a standard Persona card, even as Izuku tries to summon it for himself, the card stubbornly not responding to him no mater how hard he tried.  
“There is no mistake now…” Izuku mutters, eyes focused onto the Persona Card in his hand, “This… This is your power too now…”

“My… power?” Uraraka repeats, as if she’s trying to taste the words in her mouth, a small grimace appearing on her lips.

“I think… I think I’ve passed a… lesser version of my powers onto you…” Izuku begins saying, turning toward Uraraka so to give her her own card back, Uraraka wordlessly accepting it, her cheeks still reddening a little, “When you… when you made your shadow accept you as her mistress, when you tamed her, that must have given you the ability to control… to control your own persona… But that’s probably going to be just that for you…”

“Just that?” Uraraka scoffs, giving Izuku an almost outraged gasp, “What do you mean with just that, this is already huge for me, I’ve just got… what, a pet, an ally? Without me even working for it with my own strength, what there could be more than that?”

“No no, what I meant was that… this power you have, this aspect of my Quirk I’ve… given to you or something, is not as… versatile as mine...” Izuku repeats, flinching at Uraraka’s sudden tone, “You’ll probably only be able to control this one persona, that’s what I’m saying…”

“And how do you know that Deku?” Uraraka shoots back, her eyes narrowed, sounding incredibly peeved by the young man’s words, “You’ve said you don’t know anything about how you managed to pass part of your Quirk onto me either, what do you know about what I can and cannot do?”

Izuku startles at his friend sudden vehemence, slowly gulping as he takes a couple steps away from her, the young woman eyes soften, only a little.

“D- Deku, wait, I didn’t mean…”

“I know for certain you didn’t get the same... the same extent of my powers…” Izuku says, now that he has finally enough room to properly shows her, “Because if you did, this is what would have happened…”

Izuku closes his eyes, taking a deep breath in, soon followed by an equally deep breath out, feeling his friend’s worried, questioning for the entire time, as he pushes his right hand forward and says…

“Persona.”

And Izuku is swallowed under a tomb of card packs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was a lie...
> 
> No link this chapter, next one is probably going to be the one with the actual links, wanted to get the USJ out of the way before tackling the relationships proper, in the two weeks before the sports festival.
> 
> (To be fair, most often than not, you do not advance the relationship with someone the moment they get a persona in persona games, you usually do it later on in the story, so that the bonuses can come in naturally, AFTER they have had some experience with their persona).
> 
> Still, Should have I not divided it in two? Eh, maybe, I just wanted to release the previous chapter fast after the mini hiatus so I probably divided it in half while this could have been a complete thing.
> 
> To be fair tho, this is, like, chapter 9 right now, and I'm tackling an event around chapter 20 in the main continuity, I think cutting up events in multiple chapters shouldn't be that bad, who knows...
> 
> Tomorrow morning I'll start working on the next chapter and get back to the swing of things, this event was kind of hard to go through till the end because I'm trying, like... not to copy the canon event word by word, because why the hell would you read me when you could just read the canon event, ESPECIALLY since almost everything
> 
> As a side note, if you want to not get spoiled by some plot twists, DO NOT check on the characters and relationship tags of this story each new chapter, since I tend to update them in kind of what happens and doesn't happen, and some things might be spoilers for later, like a certain character being mentioned earlier than you'd expect them to be, or a certain couple being counted as romantic or friendship or both...
> 
> A beta reader is, as always, appreciated, but I can hopefully do without till then.


	10. Lovers Arcana: Rank II; Justice Arcana: Rank II

Our hero is, unfortunately, dying.

Submerged by an ocean of Card Packs, his relatively short life flashing right before his eyes, Midoriya Izuku is about to finally be bested, the young man already hearing the voice of his departed grandmother calling him from the great beyond, only for a pair of surprisingly strong, calloused hands to pierce through darkness of his tomb, and grab at his own, outstretched arms.

“W- What the heck is this?!” Uraraka yells, her Quirk making Izuku momentarily weightless as she hoists him out of the mountain of packs, the young boy floating mid-air for a couple seconds before getting unceremoniously dropped on the ground, face down.

“I- It’s… It’s part of my Quirk…” Izuku coughs, finally able to breath comfortably as he hoists himself back up, “Had… Had you gotten the entirety of my powers, y- you would have gotten this same thing too when you asked for your Persona…”

Uraraka looks at the gargantuan stash of card packs in front of her, slowly gulping at the sheer volume of it, a sigh of relief escaping her mouth for the bullet she had just dodged.

“Still, I didn’t expect them to be these much although,” Izuku continues, bleary eyes eying the mountain of cards he had to unpack, “I… I thought the number of packs I got was based on the number of shadows I defeated, n- not the number of shadows who die around me regardless of what I do or don’t… What’s even the radius here, if a Shadow dies in, say, Greenland, do I still get a pack?!”

“S- so, wait, wait, wait, what you’re saying is… every time one of those… things are destroyed, you get one of… whatever the heck those things are?” Uraraka asks in a confused tone, taking a tentative step toward the large pile and grabbing one in her hands, eyes fixed on it “Uh, this one has my hometown’s name on it, does it… does it m- mean anything?”

“Honestly Uraraka? I have no idea how any of this works most of the time…” Izuku breaths out, one hand outstretched toward her from his position on the floor, palm up, “I… I better start on unpacking them, my Quirk… my Personas won’t activate until I’ve finished the backlog of packs I accumulate every time I meet Shadows…”

“Oh, oh yeah, sorry…” Uraraka says, a faint blush coming to her cheeks as she offers the pack in her hands to him.

Izuku opens the pack, revealing two cup cards and three wand cards, a small sigh of relief escaping his mouth.

“So, what are those then?” Uraraka asks, wonder in her voice as she plops down, right next to Izuku, leaning in so to better look at the cards in his hands, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks, “Some… new personas? Mmmmm, nah, too different, they look nothing like the ones you use...”

“T- Those? They are… W- well, I- I c- call them Shuffle Time Cards,” Izuku explains, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips at his sudden vicinity with the young woman, “L- Like, my personas are all classified under one of the Major A- Arcana right? Shuffle Time Cards are b- based on Minor A- Arcana cards instead, t- they come out of the packs and a- all have… different effects.”

“Oh, that’s cool Deku!” Uraraka chirps, a small smile appearing on her lips, “Ok, what do those do?”

“T- those… hold on, it’d… it’d be easier if I showed y- you…” Izuku stammers out, holding up the five cards he got from the pack, and activating them all at once. Bright light washes over him, refilling some of his lost energies, all the while filling his personas with new experience, the young man closing his eyes to better enjoy the rush.

Izuku’s eyes snap back open at Uraraka’s sudden shriek, his eyes fixing on her as a bright light, like the one currently enveloping him, shine brightly off her.

“W- what was that?!” Uraraka yells, hands coming to her body and patting herself down, checking if anything was missing “D- Deku what did you do?”

“N- Nothing!” Izuku shoots back, his eyes wide, his cheeks burning, “T- those are all supposed to only affect me, t- they never activated on someone else… Unless…”

Izuku looks back at Uraraka, his eyes suddenly focused, the young woman blushing slightly under his intense and serious stare.

“Unless, since you’ve been given… part of my power… that means you also have gained the ability to get affected by these cards!” Izuku evinces, notebook already in hand from god knows where, writing down a new page just for her friend’s new Quirk, “We need… we need to test this, d- do you feel any different?  
“N- No?” Uraraka instantly say, only to pause, a pensive look appearing on her face, “Hold on… Deku, now that I think about it, I do feel a bit… less tired, like I’ve just taken a short power nap or something, even after Recovery Girl’s quirk drained me of what little energy I had left...”

“Personas take their energies from our stamina and another resource called special points depending on what skill they use,” Izuku explains, still jotting everything down on his notebook, “Special points are, like… mental stamina in a way, meaning if we deplete them we start getting headaches or start thinking more sluggishly, and Cup Cards refill our reserves of both. They are very useful, especially if you don’t want to end up getting into a coma for overexerting yourself-”

“C- Coma?!” Uraraka stammers out, her eyes wide, “What do you m- mean Coma Deku?”

“Oh yeah, it happened after the Entrance Exam,” Izuku dismissively says, another pack already in hand, barely noticing as Uraraka grows impossibly still, “Basically I stayed… one day completely asleep? Like, couldn’t wake up, my mom almost flipped when Al- when my personal trainer brought me home from UA, or at least so I was told, Recovery Girl couldn’t even use her Quirk on me since I was so tired, she might have even ended up kill me if she attempted to heal me, good thing I trained my stamina all those month before so I only lost one day to this, but even then, I was a wreck for several weeks afterward-”

“You… you almost got into a c- coma… to save me?” Uraraka says swallows a thick lump forming in her throat, some tears pooling at the corner of her eyes, “You… you stupid idiot, why did you do that?! You could have died!”

“Uh?” Izuku genially says, right as Uraraka starts slapping his shoulder in frustration, “U- Uraraka, wait, calm down!”

“I’m… I’m not worth that much, you dumbass!” Uraraka says, stopping in her assault as her hands fall to her sides, her face twisting into a pout, “I’m not worthy anyone’s life, let alone yours Deku…”

“Uraraka…” Izuku breaths out, the young woman averting his gaze from him, his eyes narrowing as a determined look comes to his face, “Uraraka, I’ll be hearing none of that. You’re easily worthy ten times my life, and even then, no matter if there was you or anyone else about to be squashed by that 0-Pointer, I would have done the same for them!”

“Yeah, and you would have still almost died for it,” Uraraka shoots back, “Heck, you almost died today too, what do you think will happen to the people who… to the people that care about you when that happens? You’d done your dumb martyr play, but the ones you’d just left behind? We’d be devastated!”

Izuku’s breath catches in his throat at her words, at the vehemence with which she’s talking to him, the young man deciding not to avert his gaze from the now crying woman in front of him.

“God, why do you have to be such a…” Uraraka continues, unleashing her frustrations on him, “Such a self-sacrificing jerk sometimes!”

“Because… Because I want to become a hero!” Izuku shoots back, internally cringing at his own words, “And… And I know that might sound corny, but I want to become a great hero Uraraka, one who can save everyone with a smile, no matter the cost, no matter what will happen to me!”

“But who’s gona save you?” Uraraka says, her wide eyes looking as lost as he is sure she must feel, “If you are out there, running yourself ragged, killing yourself to save everyone else, who’s gona save you when you are the one in danger because of yourself?”

“Well, statistically... You.” Izuku simply says, eliciting a squeak of surprise from the young woman, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks, “I mean… I mean, I’ve known you for, what, one week and the entrance exam, and you’ve already saved me… m- more times than I can count! Heck, just today you s- saved me after the v- villain after A- angel disappeared, you s- saved All Might with your Persona, you were amazing U- Uraraka!”

“I’m… I’m not as… as pure or great as you Deku, I don’t have your same… noble ideals…” Uraraka mutters, averting her own gaze from him, “I’m going to disappoint you one day, and that day is the day I’ll probably fail to save you…”

“A- As if you’d ever disappoint me Uraraka!” Izuku says, looking back at her, his eyes shining bright, “Y- you are an amazing person, one who will become a great hero one day, you’d never disappoint me even if you tried!”

Uraraka’s blush brightens, her gaze turning towards his, her eyes sparkling. Izuku’s own freckled cheeks burn bright, the two staring into each other’s eyes for longer than Izuku can even begin to understand. Izuku is the first to break the eye contact, followed by Ochako, literal steam coming out of both their ears as they do so, small, nervous chuckles escaping from their mouths as the moment is broken.

“Y- you know… no one ever had that much faith in me outside of my parents before…” Uraraka says with an awkward chuckle, trying to compose herself, “T- thank you I- Izuku, I’m glad you’re my friend.”

A warm feeling washes over Izuku’s body, his cheeks’ bright red colour fading slowly as a dopey smile appears on his face.

“Y- you know, no one ever said they were glad to be my friend either,” Izuku says, earning a small “ _Oh_ ” form the young woman beside him at his words, “And I’m glad you’re my friend too.”

Time slows to a crawl as the warm feeling inside him expands and erupt from his chest, a familiar card appearing in front of him.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

The usual chanting begins, Uraraka’s card spinning and shining brightly in front of him, moving from its previous rank of one to the next rank of two.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring Thou closer to Thy dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Lovers Arcana.”**

The card stops in its spinning, slowly sinking back inside of Izuku’s chest, only for time to still stop, Izuku’s eyes widening as he sees Uraraka’s own Persona Card erupting from her own chest, appearing in front of him.

**“The Lovers’ soul has grown and prospered under your guidance. She has now gained a new ability.”**

On Bradamante’s Card, a new skill, Baisudi, appearing on the persona’s skills list, Izuku’s eyes widening at the sight.

His brain working a mile a minute to understand the implications of this, time finally crawls back to its proper pace, the mysterious voice uttering one, final verse.

**“Thy affinity with the Lovers Arcana has strengthened. Thou can now more easily sway shadows to thy cause.”**

Izuku blinks, shaking his head right as a still blushing Uraraka simply slaps her cheeks, a determined smile on her lips.

“W- well, no matter!” She almost yells out, striking her open palm with her fist, “Come on Deku, let’s… let’s see what else do your… our cards do, we still need to open them all up before you can use your Quirk again right, better do it now that we have time than later!”

“Y- Yes…” Izuku stammers out, shaking his head from side to side to dispel his previous thoughts, focusing back onto the cards from the back he had opened, now scattered all over his lap.

They all happened to be Coin Cards.

And so Izuku, a strange sense of foreboding filling his bones, holds the five coin cards up in front of him, the cards burning brightly under his command, as twin satchels filled with yen coins drop in front of himself and his companion.

Uraraka furrows her brow in confusion, her eyes scanning over the small satchel in front of her, gingerly opening it in her hands and checking its contents.

Uraraka closes the satchel without much thought, not really thinking too much about it, ready to turn toward Izuku, asking him to try another card, before her brain comes to a screeching halt as she properly registers the contents of what she has just gained.

She opens back the satchel, wide eyes staring down in the abyss within, the abyss far too terrorized by Uraraka’s gaze to properly stare back, before she hastily shuts the satchel closed once more.

“This is money.” She says, her tone nervous, a nervous chuckle coming out of her mouth, “Deku, why the heck did your Quirk just give me money?”

“You know what, I still don’t know actually…” Izuku says, his brows furrowed as he counts the coins within his own satchel, noticing how they happened to be a perfect half of the normal quantity he would have received had he been alone while opening the pack, completely unaware of Uraraka’s mounting tremors as he keeps staring at his blood money, “I guess they can be considered a reward for destroying the Shadows in a way? As I said, I don’t… really understand some aspects of my Quirk, all I know is that this is real money and has never been reported as stolen before, so it’s legit and safe to use, if a bit risky for the economy due to inflation, so at least my Quirk isn’t trying to turn me into a thief…”

Izuku turns toward his friend, a confused look on his face, visibly recoiling as he comes face to face with Uraraka’s face, the visage of Greed almost taking a carnal, visceral form onto her own face, a perverted, deranged smile as she clutches the satchel within her hand.

“U- Uraraka?” Izuku asks, primal terror gripping at him, a cold shiver running down his spine as Uraraka’s eyes turn from the satchel in her hands to him, sizing him up, as if he was the world last cow and she was dying to get a cold glass of freshly produced milk straight out of him, by any means necessary.

The moment passes, Uraraka shaking her head from side to side to clear her head, her expression coming back normal again, only for her mood to sadden slowly, a small sigh of defeat coming out of her mouth.

“I… I can’t accept this,” Uraraka says, every word almost procuring physical pain onto her, as she offers back the satchel to him, “Your… Your Quirk made these, and I… I haven’t lost my dignity yet, I can’t accept charity out of one of my friends like this.”

Izuku raises an eyebrow at her, a small smile coming on his own face as he puts an hand on the offered satchel and pushes it back to her.

“It’s yours now Uraraka,” Izuku says, earning a surprised yelp from his friend, “I told you already, this is my Quirk rewarding us for a job well done. You’ve been a great help here today; you deserve all the money we’re gona get from these packs.”

“I… I don’t know what to say Deku…” Uraraka says, a small sniffle coming out of her mouth, “Are you… are you sure about this? It’s still your Quirk…”

“Our Quirk now, Uraraka,” Izuku says, his cheeks as red as the USSR’ flag, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips, “Again, I insist. It’s not like I’m going to die of starvation or anything, we still have more packs to open, and trust me, they tend to get pretty generous with their rewards sometimes...”

“Ok…” Uraraka breaths out, steeling herself, trembling hands receiving her money back, “Ok… I have gained… I have gained a new, incredibly generous source of income today, after a long life of hardships and tribulations. I am a serious, responsible young adult, who knows the importance of money, and I will not… overreact to this. Nope. Not even a little bit.”

A small silence fills the room, Uraraka taking one, deep, calming breath, her eyes closed, a small, content, almost ascetic smile appearing on her lips.

“Alright Deku, let’s see what else you… we’ve got in these packs.”

* * *

By the time Recovery Girl returns, Uraraka is cackling madly like a decadent, posh aristocratic villain from one of those Pre-Dawn of Quirks Anime, so loud and self-satisfied Izuku was sure they’d managed to heard her all the way to the USJ, almost bathing in a puddle of coins and banknotes currently surrounding her, a sheepish Izuku “Making it rain,” as she had requested of him, with his own share of the money.

Recovery Girl simply kicked them both out before they could even be embarrassed about being found out like that, promising to give them a real reason to stay in her infirmary if they kept fooling around in it.

* * *

Izuku did not expect to get mobbed by his classmates, once he finally gets back to their class’ dormitories alongside Uraraka, the two teens exhausted both physically and psychologically after the long day.

He expects to arrive, receive a couple well wishes, prepare himself and Uraraka a quick meal, everyone having surely already dined by themselves, and then retreat to his room, where he’s probably going to hibernate to the next couple centuries.

And Izuku believed all of this would have happened, that he could have easily concluded his day back in his room without a hitch, because Midoriya Izuku is an idealist.

An Idealist that lives in a cruel, awful world.

“There they are!” Ashido yells the second Izuku sets foot into their dorms’ common room, attracting everyone’s attention to him and Uraraka, Izuku flinching instinctively the second his classmates come rushing toward him.

“Dude, that was so manly!” Kirishima, unfortunately one of the students present during the last paces of the USJ incident, yells as he slams one of his hands behind Izuku’s back, sliding down his shoulder and holding him there, more of the boys gathering around him “The way you ran at that villain? That super cool special move you used on him?! That was so awesome, that villain didn’t stand a chance against you!”

Izuku chuckles nervously, turning toward Uraraka at his side, only to find her as equally mobbed by the Girls of class 1-A.

“And what about you, girl!” Ashido chirps out, leaning into Uraraka’s personal space, flustering the young woman as her face is now inches from hers, wide, dark eyes wide and sparkling, an excited smile on her face, “What happened after that giant monster got you?! We were all so worried yet here you are like it was nothing, did you kick their ass or something?!”

More and more questions are uttered from the swarm at the two students’ sides, their hands raised in surrender.

“Alright, Alright, everyone STOP!” Iida’s authoritative voice erupts from within the crowd, the students startling slightly and giving him ample time to elbow his way toward his friends, easily grabbing each of them by the back of their uniform thanks to his superior height compared to theirs, and disentangling them from the crowd around them, “Our friends are tired, as I’m sure we are all too, I feel questions can wait till morning, especially given how we’ve been given the next day for free. Now, it’s almost 10 PM, get back to your rooms and let your classmates eat in peace.”

“T- Thank you Iida…” Izuku stammers out as more and more students filter out the room, various degrees of disappointment ranging within their expression, the three teens heading toward the kitchen section of the dorm room, “Y- You’re so reliable, maybe I s- should give the class vice p- president’s role to you instead…”

“Nonsense Midoriya,” Iida instantly interjects, hands chopping the air in an awkward manner, “You’ve clearly demonstrated yourself as the superior candidate once again. You’ve stayed behind and fought for our class, even downed one of the main leaders among the villains if Kirishima is to be believed, all I did was get kicked out of the USJ by some floating hand and leave everyone behind, running away from the battle. I am unworthy of your-”

“T- That’s not true!” Izuku yells out, his eyes wide, “Had you n- not gone and asked for help, the professors would have never reached us in time to save Mr. Aizawa and Thirteen, nor the paramedics could have reached me in time! You saved three lives today Iida, you should not sell yourself short for t- that!”

Iida’s breath catches in his throat at Izuku’s words, the three finally having reached the kitchen space, only for him to turn mechanically toward Izuku and perform a perfect 90° angle bow toward him.

“Please, you are embarrassing me with such undeserved praise, but thank you!” Iida bellows, Izuku sheepishly scratching the back of his neck as he moves to the kitchen, only to be quickly stopped by Iida’s firm grip to his shoulder, “And please, do not tire yourself by preparing more food for any of us, let me serve you one of my Iida patented filling meals instead!”

Izuku doesn’t even have the time to say anything that Iida picks him up and deposits him in the stool near Uraraka’s, the young woman already salivating at the prospect of free food, the three friends getting into an amicable silence as Iida got to work.

“Still…” Iida continues, his back still to them, his tone filled with emotion, “I was… really worried for the both of you. When… When the Mist Villain took half of the class away, or when Uraraka got captured by those monsters, right before I could even notice it, I was… terrified. Terrified to lose my friends and… and I’m glad… I’m glad we are all fine now.”

“Please don’t ever make me worry like that again,” He bellows, tone snapping back to his usual, no nonsense serious one as he turns toward them, hands chopping the air, and Izuku’s eyes water a little as he feels how worried had his friend been for them.

“You… You would have really made a great Class President Iida…” Izuku simply says, a small, melancholic smile appearing on his lips.

Izuku could feel the worry, the warmth radiating out of his friend, right as he stiffly turned back toward the kitchen and busied himself with their meals, the small smile on Izuku’s lips widening a little as time slowed to a crawl, the familiar words beginning with their familiar chant in Izuku’s head.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Iida’s card comes out of Izuku’s chest, spinning and shining as it moves from its previous rank of one to its new rank of two, Izuku’s breath catching in the process.

**“Your bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring you closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Justice Arcana.”**

The card stops, slowly sinking back inside Izuku as time slowly crawls back to its proper pace, right as new, unfamiliar yet so familiar words finish the chanting.

**“Thy affinity with the Justice Arcana has strengthened. Once a Day, thou shall be able to instantly sense when one of thy bonds is about to be in danger, once a day.”**

Izuku’s brows furrow, yet again confused by such… arbitrary bonuses he was being given by his Links, only to shake his head from side to side, attracting a worried glance from Ochako at his side as he tries to clear his head.

“There, an Iida special for the both of you,” Iida says, two bowls filled with… something appearing in front of them, Izuku and Uraraka’s eyes squinting at the sight.

“Is this…” Izuku asks, poking at the slightly steaming bowl of black water and… unidentifiable burnt vegetables and god knows what else floating inside of it, his eyes filled with worry, “Is this… edible food?”

“Of course it is!” Iida bellows, one fist going to his chest, his voice filled with pride, “This is a secret recipe passed down my family for generations! Why, this is the same exact recipe our mother prepared for me when I was little, and it helped me grow inside the fine young man I have today become!”

“That… explains a lot actually…” Uraraka mutters under her breath, one metal spoon dipped inside the dark liquid and poking at some of the… things floating around it, getting the distinctive impression that there was something moving down there.

Izuku grabs his own spoon, tentatively dipping it in her bowl, his worried eyes going up toward an expectant Iida and a equally as worried Uraraka, before taking a leap of faith, the young man already feeling his courage bolstering, and taking the spoonful in his mouth.

It tastes…

It tastes good.

“This is… this is amazing!” Izuku says, eyes sparkling as he keeps on eating, almost inhaling the plate, “Iida, this is fantastic, this is right in my top 5 for the best dishes I’ve ever eaten in my life!”

Uraraka takes her own spoonful of food, an ocean of flavours assaulting her tastebuds as she tastes everything and nothing at once, her eyes widening as tears start flowing freely, one specific childhood memory of her own mother’s cooking something delicious for her ambushing her in this one, specific, incredible moment as he tastes a spoonful of Iida’s dish, as if she was a French food critic, and she had just been served a masterpiece by a chef who also happened to be a rat.

“Oh my god I can’t believe I’ve found something better than your curry, Deku!” Uraraka yells as she starts inhaling her own bowl, “I don’t care how, you must get this recipe! Your culinary skills coupled with this would easily become the ultimate dish!”

“Ah, I’m sorry Uraraka, this is the secret Iida family recipe, you’d need to marry a member of the Iida family if you wanted to learn about it!” Iida simply replies, hands chopping in the air even as a small, a proud smile appearing on his lips.

“Midoriya, marry Iida!” Uraraka demands, almost making Izuku chokes on his own spoon, Iida’s glasses spontaneously shattering at her words, “Then one of you can marry me and we can get this divine dish every day for the rest of our lives for free!”

Izuku chuckles slightly, his cheeks reddening at his friends’ words, a small smile appearing on his lips as he looks back at them, Iida having instantly started scolding the young woman for her indecent proposal.

Izuku can’t believe how lucky he is, his smile turning radiant as it reaches all the way to his eyes.

 _“I have friends… friends that care about me now,”_ Izuku thinks, images of his various bonds appearing in his mind, determination seeping through his joy as his features steel themselves, his gaze sharper, his eyes more focused, _“And they… And they almost took them away from me.”_

 _“I swear on my life, that as I breath…”_ Izuku thinks with the finality of a nailed coffin, _“No one… No one will harm any of my friends again.”_

* * *

In a completely different part of the country, hidden away in a darkened room, miles away from the UA campus, far less optimistic and youthful individuals are gathered, shadowy figures plotting and scheming behind the curtain of the world.

One man, his face hidden in shadows, a white lab coat on, is standing before a long table, equally darkened figures sitting right behind it, looking at the screen behind of the man.

“We begin today’s emergency Council Meeting over the events of yesterday’s incident at UA university.” Another man, sitting right in the middle of the large, wooden desk, says in an affable tone, “Doctor, if you please…”

The man in a white lab coat simply nods as a lone image appears on the screen, the USJ dome, police and pro heroes alike carting shackled villains into large, black police vans, the ones in more critical conditions shipped off on police ambulances, heading toward secure hospitals to get them checked on.

“During yesterday’s practical Rescue Training lesson of class 1-A, one of the two renowned and exclusive hero courses in UA’s university, the class has been seemingly ambushed by a new organization calling themselves the League of Villains, during the incident we will from now on collectively refer as Incident-USJ.”

The photo changes, three “artist” renditions of Shigaraki and Kurogiri appearing on the screen behind him.

“While most of the Villains involved during Incident-USJ were apprehended, two specific individuals, identified as the ring leaders of the stint, have managed to evade capture. Unfortunately, no recordings or photos of the events remain, but from what little UA has revealed to the public, one of the three villains, identified here as the Mist Villain Kurogiri, had managed to develop a high level Warp Gate Quirk, allowing him to quickly get in and out of UA’s Unforeseen Simulation Joint Training Grounds without much issue, disrupting communications with the help of several minor electric-based villains, hidden away around the premises to brute force the state of the art defence sensors around the UA’s renowned Unforeseen Simulation Joint, and of UA as a whole. The villains made no demands, and simply scattered the kidnapped students all around the Training Grounds, seemingly waiting for All Might’s arrival before striking.”

“Are these… newcomers going to be a problem for our designs?” One of the men behind the long desk asks, hands stapled beneath his nose, “We might interpret their plans for attacking new and promising hero youths before they were even able to get into the scene as an informal declaration of war after all-”

“It might be prudent to think so, but no, I don’t think so,” The man in a lab coat says as he shakes his head, “This… League of Villains’ main goal, as farfetched as it may appear, seemed to be solely based on attempting the assassination of the Number One Hero, All Might, currently teaching Hero Training at UA, and who was supposed to be present for Class 1-A’s Rescue Training, but had however ended up coming late to the lesson due to prior appointments.”

Kurogiri and Shigaraki leave the screen, an artistic rendition of the Nomu appearing in their place, causing some gasps to erupt from the room.

“The third villain here, referred by witnesses and captured villains alike only as “The Nomu,” was in fact indicated as the main mean to achieve such a seemingly impossible feat. Unfortunately, the Villain didn’t apparently manage to survive the attack on the USJ, UA’s official press statement indicating All Might as the man responsible for the obliteration of the Villain’s body in the ensuing fight, having to resort to extreme means to save his students from the extremely powerful villain.”

Everyone in the room collectively catches their breath at the reveal, more over the possibility of the symbol of peace killing anyone, even if in self-defence, even if he was trying to save his own students from the deranged villain, then on someone having died at all, all promptly ignored by the man in a white lab coat.

“That is, of course, according to the official press release…”

The Nomu disappears, revealing the Photos of the entirety of Class 1-A’s roster, as well as the pro heroes Eraserhead, thirteen and All Might.

“While both of their teachers were found in critical conditions by the rescue teams coming to the USJ once the alarm had finally been sounded, of the entirety of the students involved in the incident, only two members of class 1-A ended up suffering any sort of injury. According to our informants within the police force, as well as villain accounts and the few testimonies of some of the hero students the UA allowed to come through, the safety of the students can be attributed on three, key factors.”

Change of image, revealing a photo of the Landslide zone, several villains trapped within cages of ice, a white- and red-haired student seemingly melting the ice away for the police to better arrest the villains.

“First, the students’ own quick thinking, as well as the mastery of their Quirks, allowing them to easily dispatch the bulk of the villains in the area.”

Change of image again, this time revealing a young man with a large tail, guiding more officers in a city that had been seemingly burnt to a crisp, unconscious bodies scattered around.

“Second, the villain own inexperience. Most of the villains engaged by the League seem to have been chosen more for their number than any real quality, and had poor coordination and teamwork with each other, allowing the scattered students to easily ambush them and retreat away from them.”

“And third…”

Change of image, this time revealing the police photos of large, black maned lions, large balls and chains attached to their back paws, frolicking inside a overcast city, a rock headed boy blushing at the camera as several, astonished officers stand in the foreground, several villains trapped by the same large, black chains attached to the lions back paws.

Gasps are heard around the darkened room, as more and more artist renditions of masked monsters appear on the screen alongside the lone photograph, culminating with the giant, flying heart-monster, its head covered in yellow fog.

“And third, the presence of Shadow Entities on the premises of the USJ during the incident proper, managing to scatter the villains further and, as you can see in one of the pictures above, even ending up getting tamed by one of the students as a result.”

“This… This is impossible!” One of the women at the table yells, large, puffy cigar falling off her mouth as she slams a fist on the table, “It’s been more than 40 years since the last time we’ve seen those things, why would they show up again right here, right now, while we were so close to our goal?”

“I am aware of the… unfortunate timing of this re-emergence,” the man in a lab coat concedes, raising a finger to his shining glasses and pushing them down his nose, “However, not everything is lost. Our sources inside the Police Force tell us the authorities as well as UA’s own faculty are choosing to believe that the Shadows were previously planted by the League of Villains as a whole, especially after a previous incident involving their sudden emergence during this year Entrance Exam…”

“Ah, so we have had TWO different Emergence Events this year alone?!” one of the men behind the desk, barks, pencil snapping in his tightened fist, “Why is the Council knowing of this only NOW Doctor?! This is serious, this might compromise years of careful planning!”

“The council is only knowing about this now because I have only started knowing about this a few days before the start of this meeting,” The doctor simply replies, his tone even, “UA has tried to keep such obvious tampering of their entrance exam, probably trying to cause a scandal so close to last year’s mass expulsion of Class 1-A, using their sudden position to strong arm the government into giving them more funding for security and maintenance reasons, attributing the sudden incursion of Shadows to eventual glitches in their system. In fact, the UA faculty is, as we are speaking, still trying not to have the media or their students connect the dots between the two incidents.”

Grumblings can be heard all around the room, the Doctor sighing as another image pops up on the screen, this one showing back the class 1-A rooster.

“Fortunately, even despite the low data still in our possession, we should be able to easily narrow down the identity of this iteration’s “lighting rod.” First, we need to exclude the students that weren’t present during both incidents.”

Todoroki’s and Yaoyorozu’s pictures disappear from the screen,

“Of these 18 Students, four are registered as users of Familiar or Mind Control Quirks, while one of them has been indicated as the one “responsible” for the Disaster-Class Shadow’s appearance.”

The photos of Midoriya, Shinso, Koda and Tokoyami appear on the left, while Uraraka’s lone picture appear on the right, the other picture greying back in the background.

“No witnesses of the last events of Incident USJ seem to be very forthcoming with their answers, however, from what we have managed to gather from our sources, Only student 18 Midoriya Izuku, Student 19 Shinso Hitoshi and Student 5 Uraraka Ochako were present during the Nomu supposed obliteration at All Might’s hands.”

Koda and Tokoyami disappear from the screen, the other three student taking front and centre on the screen.

“Are those the next generation of heroes?” One of the women behind the desk scoffs, “One of those… brats looks like they are holding him at gunpoint to take that photo, he’s never going to survive the hero world if he doesn’t start growing a backbone.”

“You keep saying the word “supposed,” Doctor,” Another man behind the large desk points out, spindly fingers rapping against the wood, “Are we to believe All Might was not the man behind the destruction of this… Nomu?”

“Quite,” The doctor simply says as a new image, a photo of the USJ’s main square, sunk and caved in into a giant crater, the water for the now exposed, twisted pipes of the fountain bursting down the bottom, right as paramedics try to climb down toward a lone, broken figure semi submerged in the water, unfortunately not properly shown on camera.

“This is, supposedly, the effect of All Might’s devastating attack against the Villain formerly known as Nomu,” The doctor points out, the image zooming on the bottom of the crater, “Keeping in mind the villain has been, again, supposedly, completely obliterated by All Might, especially due to his reported Super Regeneration Quirk, please tell me, especially taking into consideration the body’s proportions, who is this figure lying exactly in the middle of the crater?”

“So… you are saying…” one of the women around the large desk slowly gulps, eyes wide, cold sweat running down her brown, “You are saying… That UA lied, and the one responsible for destroying the villain… was one of their students?”

“Allegedly, yes.” The doctor replies, his cold stare sweeping down the room, “And I don’t think I’ll need to remind you all, how extremely coincidental it would be, for our Shadow’s “Lighting Rod” to be in the same class as someone capable of such destructive power.”

The Photo disappears, getting back to Midoriya’s, Shinso’s and Uraraka’s class photos.

“Considering how Student 5 Uraraka Ochako is still in the world of the living as we speak, despite spontaneously generating a Disaster-Class Shadow and making her run wild, I think it’s safe to assume that if she wasn’t a Lighting Rod earlier, she has become one now.” Uraraka’s picture is moved to the side, leaving Shinso’s and Midoriya’s pictures back in the forefront, “This forces us to consider the existence of at least two potential leaks in the Project, as well as many possible future leaks happening within Class 1-A and beyond, based on who or what the potential Lighting Rod have been interacting with. We must closely monitor each student within the class and-”

“Can’t we just… kill both of them?” One of the men behind the desk interrupts the doctor, thick, wriggling his meaty fingers above his large belly, “We are so close to the Project’s Completion, what’s a couple dead students offered at the altar of progress?”

“Tempting as it is, murdering the current “Lighting Rods,” how many as they might be, would only accelerate the start of the next cycle before we’ll be able to properly complete our preparations,” The Doctor sighs, fingers going to his nose and pressing, trying to ease the building headache in his temples, “And even then, I don’t think UA would take… kindly if some of their students happened to be involved in… dramatic accidents orchestrated by one of their own major shareholders now, especially after their recent lapse in security, wouldn’t you agree? No, we cannot allow us to shake the boar too much, at least until we are not sure about the Lighting Rod’s identity, and we are able to securely and discretely take them out of commission for the time we need to conclude the Project.”

The man behind the desk grumbles in response, petulantly crossing his arms above his belly, another sigh escaping the Doctor’s lips before he can stop himself.

“We are to wait and see, Sir.” The doctor repeats, articulating each word as clear as he could, “We are all co incredibly close to the coronation of our dreams, to the formation of the perfect Society we’ve been building forward ever since the Council came to be, we cannot, and I can’t stress this enough, lose it all because we’ve been too hasty in our decisions.”

“The Doctor is Right, Kouetsu Dear,” The man with the spindly fingers hums, “The UA Sports Festival will come soon anyway, we’ll simply have to… scout for potential nuisances among the students, and simply have some of the Agencies close to us offer them an internship, then we’ll be able to closely monitor them without much issues, and properly... steer them toward the path that will be more profitable for us.”

The other man grumbles some more, but seemingly backs off, the Doctor giving out one, almost imperceptible sigh of relief in the process.

“Well, that is all for yesterday’s report, I’d suggest adjourning the meeting, and meet back after the Sports Festival gives us more Data regarding our potential Lighting Rods…” The Doctor says, his hands trembling slightly at his sides, eyes fixed on the men and women, hidden in the shadows, staring intently at him.

“Well said doctor, well said,” The man sitting right in the middle of the large wooden table says with a soft chuckle, all tension leaving the doctor’s shoulders as the assembly comes to an end, “Well then, I officially declare today’s meeting of the N-K-Y Trinity Family Council adjourned, see you all in two weeks of time, we are all but a Mirror to the Brothers.”

“We are all but a Mirror to the Brothers,” The men and women behind the desk all shout as they all raise as one, right fist slamming against where their heart would be, quickly mimicked by the doctor, “We are all but a Mirror to the Lovers.”

“And may we only die to die again.”

* * *

It’s the dawn of a new day for one Midoriya Izuku. He is refreshed, charged up, and ready to face the music as he drops off his bed, heading toward the communal bathroom still in his pyjamas.

As he brushes his teeth alongside his fellow classmates, thankfully still too groggy with sleep due to the previous day to properly hound him again, countless possibilities opening in front of him for the current day, courses having been cancelled for the day due to yesterday’s incident, a pensive look appearing on his face.

 _“I need to do… so many things today… so many people to meet…”_ He thinks for the first time in his life, and yet the first of many times for the years to come , as it finally starts to sink into him how, if he really wanted to befriend as many people as possible, he needed to take logistics and time restraints into account.

 _“I can fuse my Personas now, maybe I should check on the Velvet room for that, check on Anna if she has any new requests… But… Should I tell the class about it? About… everything? My powers, the shadows… I need to at least tell Tsuyu more than what she already knows, I promised her, but I also don’t want my classmates, my friends to stay in the dark any longer, especially if another incident happens and they get attacked by Shadows again… and I should warn some of my teachers as well, maybe go with them with Uraraka, explain how my Quirk is now affecting her, so they can take the proper precautions… But what about All Might, darn it was so hectic yesterday I completely forgot about him, he’s fine but is he really, he was hurt pretty badly by that Nomu, I need to check on him ASAP… Wait wait wait, but what about my duties as Vice President of the class, I need to talk with Yaoyorozu about that soon, she didn’t give me many directives over what I was supposed to do in the end…”_ Izuku thinks, not even realizing he is currently muttering all around his toothbrush, freaking a nearby Ojiro out, “ _God,_ _So much to do, so little time…”_

Determination fills him, his eyes narrowing toward his own reflection, almost unrecognizable from the young man from so many months ago, hauling broken refrigerators up a trash filled beach, and yet so similar, as

 _“I will make time,”_ Izuku thinks, optimistic and determined like never before, _“I will make time for all of my bonds, for all of my friends, my responsibilities, because I’ve spent almost a decade and a half wishing, begging for those… and I’ve finally got them, I’ve finally got... friends, classmates that do not hate me, people who rely on me, I will not ruin it all and neglect my friendships with them, I shall support them all and spend as much time with them as I can!”_

His decision final, Izuku finishes to brush his teeth, spitting in the sink before heading outside the communal bathroom, ready to take in the day.

_“So, first I should go to…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter, because I have AGAIN failed to go directly to the free day chapter.
> 
> Mostly to set up some plot really.
> 
> Next time, if the gods are fucking merciful and stop with having my story derail toward more stuff, we have the Free Day Social Link Speed Run, where Izuku needs to talk to:
> 
> Tsuyu
> 
> Yaoyorozu
> 
> All Might
> 
> A Teacher (Aizawa is out of commission tho... Gee... I wonder who is he going to meet... in this persona crossover... what Professor among the many professors of UA is a Persona character ever going to meet... someone that rimes with WILF(red)... damn... guess we'll never know...)
> 
> The Class as a whole
> 
> Tokoyami
> 
> Miscellaneous
> 
> And this time... this time I will set it up all in one chapter.


	11. High Priestess Arcana: Rank I; Empress Arcana: Rank II

Izuku gulps, slowly, waiting outside of Recovery Girl’s side infirmary, where his teacher, his mentor, the Number One Hero All Might is currently located, one hand raised to rap at the door, jitters and nerves rooting him on the spot.

He barely registers the weirded-out stares of the few passer byes all around him, frozen as he is in front of the closed door in front of him, not ready for what might await him inside.

Is he ready to face his mentor yet? Is he ready to tell him, him before anyone else involved, about the state of his Quirk? About his potential involvement with the USJ incident?

On all emotional, physical and psychological levels, no, he wasn’t ready, but All Might had put a lot of faith in him, and he owed it to him, Izuku steeling his nerves as he knocks his fist down, gently, against the infirmary’s door…

Only for said door to open, revealing a tall man wearing a trenchcoat behind, Izuku fist bonking right against his chest.

“Oh… Oh no I’m sorry!” Izuku shrieks, panicking, retracting the offending hand and raising them both in surrender in front of himself, “I… I wanted to check on All M- Might, I didn’t know s- someone else was in t- there, I’ll be g- going now t- then…”

“Young Midoriya?” All Might voice comes from behind the tall man, ruffling sounds being heard, “Tsukauchi, he’s the young man I’ve been talking you about, let him in, let him in!”

The taller man’s eyes light up in recognition, an easy smile appearing to his face, specifically designed to put civilians at ease, yet failing miserably against Izuku’s perpetually startled disposition, right as he is ushered in.

All Might is back in his true form, body skeletal and bandaged, soft, white clean cloth wrapped around his lower body, an empty bowl on his bedside table, two chopsticks left discarded in it.

Izuku panics instantly returns as the stranger closes the door back behind him, moving his way toward Izuku’s predecessor and sitting on one of the two chairs at his bedside table, Izuku meekly following him, standing now in front of All Might’s hospital bed.

“A- All Might!” Izuku begins, his eyes darting between the two men, his eyes lingering on All Might’s powered down form “Is… is this O- OK?!”

“Ah, don’t worry Young Midoriya,” All Might replies with a dismissive hand gesture, “This is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, he’s an old friend in the police force, and one of the few people I’ve trusted with the true nature of my power, you don’t have to worry about anything when he’s around.”

“Ah, stop it All Might, you’re going to make me blush now…” Detective Tsukauchi bashfully replies, one hand sheepishly scratching behind his back, his soft, rectangular eyes turning back toward Midoriya, “And I’m glad I can finally meet All Might’s successor in the flesh, especially after all the things he’s been telling me about you! Did you know he couldn’t stop gushing about you for month after he started your training? He looked like a proud helicopter mom showing her friends the photos of her children’s recital or something…”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly at the image, All Might sputtering and coughing blood at the detective words, what little blood he had left in his veins pooling to his cheeks, leaving a faint blush behind.

“T- Tsukauchi, I’m… I’m sure Young Midoriya didn’t come here to hear you gossip about me!” All Might interjects, instantly sitting back up on his hospital bed, revealing more of his skeletal bodies, barely held together by spit, bandages and faith.

Izuku’s mood sours instantly, hands are trembling at his sides, only for him to stay them with a slow gulp, staring down at the two men in front of him.

“I… I wanted to check on you after yesterday’s… yesterday’s incident,” Izuku stammers out, taking one deep breath, “And… And I’m here because I have a confession to make…”

All Might’s eyebrows raise to his hairline and Izuku’s words, as do Detective Tsukauchi’s, the two men exchanging worried looks with each other.

“Do I… would you prefer I wasn’t present for-” Detective Tsukauchi begins, only to be hastily interrupted by Midoriya.

“N- no, no, I think… I think you should be here, you’re in the police, I think you… you should know about this too…” Izuku says, squashing down any second thought he might have, “Is… Is about my Quirk… Not One for All, my… My other Quirk… and those… those monsters who attacked us during the Incident…”

“You mean the ones the League of Villains brought in but couldn’t control?” Detective Tsukauchi interjects, furrowing his brows in confusion, “What about them? Wait, do you know something we don’t know? If that’s the case, you should be forthcoming with any information regarding the case.”

Izuku flinches, averting his gaze from the two men, not able to look either of them in the eyes.

“It’s… They were not brought in by the League of Villains…” Izuku begins, scrunching his eyes closed, “I… I was the one who made them appear. I’m the one who put everyone more in danger, who made the monster who kidnapped Uraraka appear… I’m the one to blame for all of that…”

Silence reigns in the small infirmary room, Izuku feeling the stare of the two men within it directly aimed at him, the young man wanting only to shrink away and retreat further away from them, the seconds of the large clock in the room ticking slowly in the background.

“Well, I can tell you are not lying at least…” Detective Tsukauchi replies in a surprised tone, with no sudden hostility in his voice, “Or at least you’re thinking you’re telling the truth. Why do you think that’s the case Midoriya?”

Izuku opens his eyes, cautiously peering back at the other two man, their eyes staring back at him with earnest expressions, small tears forming at the sides of his eyes.

And so, like a dam has broken, Izuku explains the circumstances of his Quirk for what feels like the 100th time already.

* * *

“And… t- that’s… that’s m- my Quirk’s… side effect, t- that’s why I... I was a- another r- reason why we were all in danger yesterday,” Izuku concludes, his eyes downcast, “I… I think I owed an e- explanation to all of you…”

Silence fills the common room of UA’s Class 1-A’s dorms, Izuku unable to look his classmates in the eye, steeling himself for the hatred, the scorn he had always been so accustomed to as a Quirkless person. It stings, especially after he had deluded himself that now, maybe, in UA it would have been different for him, and yet here he is, even with a Quirk, even with Two Quirks, ruining everything again.

_“It was good while it lasted…”_

Telling All Might and his Detective Friend, as understanding and as sympathetic as they were, even as they reassured Izuku that he had done nothing wrong, and it was the League of Villains’ fault not his, and that was just something that happened with Quirks and all, meant that Izuku had now passed the point of no Return. He needed to warn the teachers too now, All Might himself encouraging him to do so, to tell the truth (Well, not the whole truth at least, One for All still needed to be protected after all), so that they could better prepare to other eventual outbursts on his part, so to speak.

Which meant, with his mentor bedridden, and his homeroom teacher out of commission for the time being, that Izuku needed to go directly to the highest position among all members of the UA Faculty.

Which meant Izuku had to tell everything to the principal.

Principal Nedzu was… a strange creature, Izuku had decided, even as he nerded out over the sheer existence of another Quirked Animal outside of Remus. He laughed a little too much at his own jokes, even if he offered him tea and biscuits during his visit, even as he casually mentioned having already been aware of not only Izuku’s condition as All Might’s successor, as well as his own involvement with the USJ incident.

“You see, the whole campus ground has been bugged an filled with cameras ever since the entrance exam,” the small, talking rodent had explained with a soft squeak, “Why, unless they didn’t all happen to malfunction at the same time due to a series of targeted electric Quirk jamming them, I’m pretty sure there is nothing that goes on in this university that I don’t know about, be them dalliances in the public toilets on the third floor between young third years in love, or dark and obscure secrets my students might harbour, like yours for example, Young Midoriya.”

Izuku had gulped at the blatant display of privacy violations admitted by the small creature, even if a small, part of him still was at least thankful he didn’t need to explain himself to him again.

Still, even with… at least two members of the faculty warned, Principal Nedzu assuring Izuku that his other teachers would have been made aware of his own… condition at the first staff meeting in the week, Izuku now needed to face his true challenge yet.

Which was, again, telling his classmates.

The official report for the UA incident, was that the Shadows and the Nomu had been the results of genetic experimentation from the League of Villains, but that had ended poorly when most of the monsters had snapped back against their masters, and were all either destroyed by the students of Class 1-A or, in the case of the powerful Nomu, obliterated by All Might himself.

That had risen some voices among the usual crowds, blaming the students and the symbol of peace of excessive force over such rare, new life forms, especially if they had decided to leave their lives of villainy behind, but were mostly unheard, ignored by the masses, far too excited and concentrated over the sheer power Class 1-A must have displayed, having faced both Villains and Monsters alike and having lived to tell the day.

So, Izuku could have left it at that, even with Tsuyu’s burning stare in the back of his head for the whole day, he could have left his friends unaware of his role in the incident, the teachers and his mentor the only ones being the wiser.

But that didn’t sit well with him.

He was already hiding his connection to All Might from them…

He couldn’t hide this too. He simply couldn’t.

They deserved the truth.

So, after having prepared each of them a special lunch beforehand, right inside their dorms, Izuku took the front stage, right in front of his 19, slightly confused classmates, the Velvet Room standing, invisibly, silently behind him, and revealed…

Almost everything, of course.

At least what he felt he could reveal to them, what he felt were his own secrets to reveal.

Which is where that led him right now.

“Did you know?”

It’s Iida the first to talk, Izuku flinching at his serious tone, his penetrative stare aimed at Izuku’s trembling form.

Izuku gulps, slowly, averting his gaze from his friend,

“N- Not really…” he begins, air rushing out of his mouth, “I… I had some… some inklings, after the Entrance Exam, about… about where did those monsters come from, why were they here, but I had decided to ignore it, thinking… thinking it might have been a fluke, it might have been… something else, but… after yesterday’s events, after… after what happened to Uraraka…”

“Now I’m certain,” Izuku concludes, trying his best to steel his nerves even if under the penetrant stares of his classmates, “I… I was… those monsters… they attacked us because of my Quirk. They were there because of me. I’m… I’m sorry I couldn’t figure it out sooner.”

Another tense silence, Izuku shrinking further away from his peers, waiting for their reaction, any reaction.

And then, before anyone else can do anything, before anyone else can say anything.

Bakugou laughs.

It’s not a nice laugh, is the same laugh Izuku had heard multiple times in the course of their lives together, when he was hitting him or bullying him or exploding his stuff, shocked stares turning toward the young man on the far edge of the group, sprawled on one of the plush armchairs in the Television Zone.

“Oh my god, this is priceless,” Bakugou says in between fits of laughter, small tears forming at the edge of his eyes as he makes a scene, “I… I can’t believe it Deku... You finally get a fucking Quirk, you finally get to join UA, and it turns out you were actually a fucking villain all along!”

“I… I’m not a Vi-!”

“Yes you are!” Bakugou roars, shooting up from his armchair with a blast, sparkles frizzling at his hands, “Even if you didn’t know shit about this, you still suspected right? Yet you never told any of us anything, not me, nor any of your new, so called friends, until it was too late, until your shitty Quirk ended up ruining everyone’s lives, until All Might got hurt because of you! But that’s all you’re good for, right? Ruining everything you touch!”

Izuku’s hands tremble at his side, shrinking under his bully’s hard stare, the two former friends standing each at one side of the room, their class’ eyes fixed on the tense confrontation happening in front of them.

“Look at you, shrinking into yourself as soon as someone raises his voice,” Bakugou spits at him, his eyes narrowing, “You’re not a hero, hell, you’re not that good of a villain either, you’re just a nuisance, and UA should have expelled you for it the first day we were here.”

 _“This is like high school again,”_ Izuku grimly realizes, “ _Everyone is going to side with Bakugou again, no one will do anything to help me, and I will just be… left behind, either ignored by my classmates, or actively bullied by them. Nothing has changed at all.”_

Izuku would like to be anything but here, somewhere where he can be alone, away from the stares of his classmates, away from their judgement, away from Bakugou’s words, away from the small, lingering embers of rage, mounting inside, of him at his bully’s words, festering like they’ve been doing for more than a decade.

And then, before Izuku can do anything, be it snap or run away or cry…

“T- that’s not true!” Uraraka interjects, instantly going at Izuku’s side, one hand grabbing at his with barely a blush on her cheeks, Izuku’s brain short circuiting in the process, her tone firm “It’s… It’s not like what you’re saying at all! Deku never willingly put any of us in danger, heck, he was the first one to come to my rescue when he realized what had happened to me, he almost sacrificed himself to protect All Might!”

Bakugou laughs at her words, Uraraka startling at his sudden reaction, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Yeah, and who’s to say he didn’t prepare all of it, round face?” Bakugou shoots back, his glare now directed at Uraraka, “You heard the police yesterday, they said those monsters were brought in by those villains alongside that other monster Deku killed, who is to say he didn’t help them out so he could pass as the hero who saved All Might?!”

A tense silence fills the room, Uraraka faltering slightly as she become the new centre of attention, small tears forming at the back of Izuku’s eyes.

“God, do you even listen to yourself?” Shinso’s dry drawl breaks the silence, unimpressed glare aimed at the explosive young man as he walks toward Midoriya and Uraraka, standing directly at his other side, “You’re the one who knows him the longest around here, and you really think that Midoriya Izuku of all people, would honestly do… any of that shit, just to score some brownie points with… what, the press who thinks All Might was the one who defeated the Nomu? Get real.”

“Shinso is right, even if he should stop being so foul mouthed!” Iida interjects, rushing at Izuku’s side, hands chopping erratically around him as he talked, “Midoriya is our Vice President, one I myself voted for during our elections, and even if I admit it was far too reckless for him not to disclose such a dangerous drawback to his Quirk before such a dire and dangerous situation, he still performed splendidly during the Incident, and has decided to come clear to us now that he has gained enough data to better ascertain his worries! Midoriya did nothing wrong I say, and I will stand behind him every step of the way!”

“Yeah!” Hagakure chirps in, stomping her way toward Izuku’s group, dragging a blushing Koda all the way, “And even then, those monsters were no big deal either! Heck, some of them even ended up helping us with the villains, right Koda?”

Koda simply blushes harder at the invisible’s girl’s words, shrinking slightly into himself under everyone’s stares, Izuku looking wildly around his many classmates standing at his side.

“ _Oui_ , those creatures were violent toward those dastardly villains just as much as they were violent toward us, _Non_?” Aoyama interjects, pirouetting his way directly inside Izuku’s group, right between Uraraka and Izuku, and posing right in between them, much to the two students’ chagrin “And surely, would any of us really call himself a hero, if _nous_ couldn’t handle a couple… what’s the word… _Ombres_ , as he called them? Why, I don’t know _vous_ , but none of them could really stand a chance against my magnificent and sparkling Quirk in the place I found myself in!”

“Forget about the monsters for a second!” Kirishima shoots back, stomping his way toward Izuku, “I still don’t get why we’re complaining about Midoriya at all, dude was so freaking Manly when he attacked that monster in the end, no way he’d be a villain even if he tried!”

“Indeed, he even so splendidly helped me and Asui deal with the villains and the shadows back in the flood zone,” Tokoyami interjects, making his way toward Izuku’s group, “And why, I’d say these… Shadows actually have been more help than harm to us, scattering the villains circling around our hiding spot, allowing us to leave the Flood Zone without having to even take any of them on. Truly, the mark of any great general out there, to know when to engage with an enemy, and when to let two opposing forces fight against themselves.”

“Well, I think he’s a spineless nerd and his little flashlight monster sucks,” Dark Shadow grumbles from beneath Tokoyami’s hood, “But I he can make some mean chicken nuggets, so he’s fine in my book…”

“He’s right, Kero,” Tsuyu shoots in, making her way toward Izuku’s group, “Midoriya **is** a spineless nerd Kero, but I think the only reason why he’s doing this right now, is because I asked him to be honest with me after I noticed some things about his Quirk and those monsters Kero, and he had to be a selfless idiot and decide to be honest with the whole class instead Kero. Someone like that would never be a Villain Kero.”

“Well said,” Yaoyorozu says, a confident smile on her lips as she joins on Midoriya’s group, “We’ve might have known Midoriya for only a week, and he might have made a mistake of not warning the proper authorities sooner, and he might get really emotional during intense situations, and he might be astonishingly reckless at times, BUT, and I can see this as both his Class President and as his Partner during the Training, I am sure that Midoriya Izuku will be a great hero one day, and would in fact readily lay down his life for any of us at a moment notice, no matter for who we are, and honestly? Still incredibly, dangerously reckless on his part, but I’m sure that if more people in the world were like him, maybe we wouldn’t even need heroes at all enforcing the law out there.”

“You on the other hand…” Yaoyorozu continues, her glare focusing on Bakugou, “You’ve been demonstrated time and time again to have an antagonistic, completely unheroic personality, constantly insulting your peers and isolating yourself from the class, all the while Midoriya kept trying to be as friendly as possible with his classmates despite his skittish and passive personality, even ending up cooking up for us several times in a row. So, you better think really carefully on who you should or you shouldn’t antagonize here and now…”

“Yeah, Yaomomo is right!” Ashido interjects, showing her tongue to Bakugou as she goes to Izuku’s group, completely ignoring Yaoyorozu’s startled, deer in the headlights reaction at the sudden nickname, “We are all here to become heroes, but honestly? You sound like a big jerk to me, so maybe the only one who’s a villain here it’s you!”

“I mean, yeah, she’s not wrong,” Jiro says with a shrug, she and Kaminari moving toward Yaoyorozu and Izuku’s group, “Like, dude, we’ve known you for, what, a week at best, and we can all tell you have the personality of a burning garbage can, full offense intended.”

Izuku can’t believe his hears and eyes, as more and more students come to his side, support him, defend him, a united front standing between him and one Bakugou Katsuki, the young man staring incredulously at the lot of them, too astounded to actually get angry over someone standing up to him.

 _“This… this is nothing like high school actually…”_ he realizes, his heart… lightening, as if it had been gripped by something vicious and hard for years, and it had finally been forced back open, letting him go, even as Todoroki, the last of his classmates still on the side-lines, simply shrugs and gets in between him and Bakugou, _“People… people are standing up for me… against Kacchan…”_

Tears flow down Izuku’s cheeks now, a large smile spreading on his face, a warm feeling spreading within his chest…

He could feel his relationships with all his classmates, be them linked to him or not, strengthen, bringing him closer to them, if not as close to trigger a rank up of their links.

“Oh, so that’s how it is then.” Bakugou growls out, his glare trained onto his classmates, his tone cold and hard, “Fine, I don’t care, hell, who the FUCK cares, it’s not like I ever needed any of you… you extras, you can all stick up with that shitty nerd all you want, is not like it’s gona make a difference about anything in the end… Hell, it’s not like any of you is going to **ever** make a difference.”

This solicits some cries of outrage from their classmates, Izuku barely registering as he sees Bakugou, alone, stomps toward the boys’ dorm rooms.

“I’m going to my room to train, you extras better not come and disturb me,” Bakugou simply spits out, without even looking back as he enters one of the dorms’ lifts, sliding doors closing behind him without a single word.

Heavy silence hangs around the room at the dramatic exit, a shout-whispered “So unnecessary confrontational… and yet so Manly!” barely breaking it as Izuku’s tears slowly subside.

“Well, that was awkward…” Ashido awkwardly mutter, breaking the silence as one hand goes scratching the back of her neck.

“I’ll say…” Yaoyorozu answers with a sigh, turning back toward Izuku with a serious gaze, “We’re putting a lot of faith in you, Vice President, because you’ve somewhat managed to impress us, or because we couldn’t stand Bakugou’s treatment of any of us, so you better not let that trust go to waste, got it?”

Izuku gulps, hastily nodding at Yaoyorozu’s words, suddenly feeling like a cornered small mammal surrounded by hungry snakes, everyone’s eyes back on him.

“Good, now, I think some of the class has more questions to ask you regarding your Quirk, especially if it should still act up in future emergencies, either in the recent future or thinking more broadly when we’ll begin sidekick and hero work proper…” Yaoyorozu returns saying, a small smile appearing on her lips, “I think we should all form a safe, organized list of questions, so not to overwhelm him too much. I’ll provide the pen and paper, and we’ll extract them out of a bowl at random, that way we can turn this into a class bonding exercise too, what do you think?”

Soft murmurs of assent slither around the room, Izuku the last to agree to the exercise, slowly gulping as Yaoyorozu hands him stacks of pens and papers to pass around his classmates, some of them already started writing their questions onto the slices of paper.

“I hope… I hope that wasn’t too forward of me,” Yaoyorozu whispers to him as he gets back, sitting on the armchair provided to him, the young woman writing her own questions on her own stack of papers, “As you said, your Quirk might act up at any second right? I think it would build up trust and companionship between us all if you were to address some potential issues coming from it before they festered and grew within our classmates, don’t you think?”

“I… No, you are right, don’t worry,” Izuku whispers back, scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish chuckle, “I was planning to… to be as open and forward toward all of you after yesterday’s events anyway, this is a good way as any to do so.”

“Good,” Yaoyorozu says, briefly raising back her stare from her papers up toward him, “Wouldn’t want my Vice to get flustered over giving semi public speeches. We’ll be heroes one day, eighteen classmates and are nothing compared to the eighty hundred journalists we’ll have to face one day after all.”

“Ah… you really had to say that uh?” Izuku mutters, blushing furiously as he averts his gaze from her, the prospect of any sort of media attention completely destroying his confidence, “I… I’ll try to do my best t- today then, w- worst case scenario I can… I can become an Underground Hero like Mr. A- Aizawa…”

“Oh yes, you could do that, but I think that would be a waste actually,” Yaoyorozu shoots back with a small, gentle smile, “From what Kirishima told us, and trust me, he couldn’t shut up about it the whole evening yesterday, you were really, and I quote, “Manly” during the final stretches of the Incident yesterday. I’d say, if you managed to cure your image a bit better, and you overcame this… this shyness of yours toward large crowds, you’d make a great Pro Hero in no time.”

Izuku can, literally, feel his heart skip a beat at her encouragement, which is something that should really worry him since that’s a serious medical condition, yet he barely even cares about it as a warm feeling fills his chest, preening under his President’s praise, feeling the faith, the respect, if still budding, she seemed to have for him.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Time slows to a crawl as the warm feeling caused by the taller woman’s praise expands within him, Yaoyorozu’s card coming out of his chest, spinning, shining brightly as it changed its rank from it previous state of I toward the following state of II.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring Thou closer to Thy dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Empress Arcana.”**

The spinning and the shining stop, the card hovering mid-air right in front of Izuku, the young man slowly gulping at the rather… suggestive image there represented, still not used to it.

**“Thy affinity with the Empress Arcana has strengthened. Thou are now able to produce small healing objects at a work bench, once a day.”**

Izuku’s brows furrow in confusion at the voice’s words, once again not explain why he was actually supposed to be able to do any of that now, nor how to actually, well, do it, as if he was just supposed to go to a “workbench” and start working on it without much thought.

Still, time now back to its proper pace, Izuku’s classmates finished writing their slips of paper, gathered al by Yaoyorozu and Iida, the young man having offered himself as volunteer to collect and later extract and recite each question from the large ballot box with stool produced by Momo just for the occasion, her stomach grumbling softly in the process, soft enough for only Izuku to hear, the young woman pointedly and defiantly ignoring it as she kept giving a winning smile to her classmates around her.

“Well then, all Questions will be left anonymous and picked up randomly, and Midoriya will be allowed not to answer the ones that he will deem too personal or too invasive, so to ensure proper fairness to everyone involved,” Yaoyorozu begins, waiting for everyone to agree to her terms before continuing with her role, “Iida, if you please, you can begin with the first question.”

“Yes.” Iida, the young man standing ramrod straight right beside Izuku, almost shouts, one hand going inside the ballot box in front of him, fishing out the first question of the evening.

“Midoriya,” Iida begins, barely registering what was written on the piece of paper as he mechanically read it, his brain catching up to his mouth far to late for him to properly realize what he was asking, the inevitable happening right before everyone’s eyes.

“Are you All Might’s secret love child?”

Silence, as deathly and as still as a graveyard, everyone’s eyes widening, Iida’s and Yaoyorozu’s cheeks taking a bright blush at the words written on the piece of paper, but not as bright as the one suddenly bursting on Izuku’s own cheeks, the young man trying to bury himself further into his armchair as deep as he could, his face hidden behind his hands as he felt everyone’s stares onto him.

And then the class descends into anarchy.

“Who wrote that?!” Ashido yells, trying to make herself heard over the ruckus, she herself doubling over on the floor in hysterical laughter, “Who had the absolute BALLS to write that?!”

“This is… baseless slander,” Yaoyorozu almost shrieks, red cheeks growing redder as she take as step forward, “Whoever wrote this, I specifically asked you all not to make invasive or fictitious questions, and that’s what you put in? You have greatly disappointed me.”

“I’d say that was a legitimate question all things considered, Kero…” Tsuyu interjects, one finger to her chin, one of the few students still perched on her own seat and not rolling on the floor, nor standing up and yelling at each other and/or Izuku, “All Might does seem particularly protective of Midoriya, Kero, and there is to take into account the incredible strength he displayed during the super move he used to defend All Might, seemingly mirroring one of All Might’s own super moves kero, it was a safe assumption to make Kero...”

A few stares turn toward Tsuyu, the young frog woman looking around herself in confusion.

“What, Kero?” She asks, tilting her head to the side, “I didn’t write that Kero, I was just defending the reasoning behind it Kero.”

“You… do realize that doesn’t clear you in the slightest, right Asui?!” Iida interjects, on Tsuyu’s side faster than she can ask him to call her Tsuyu, hands chopping wildly in the air “Honestly Asui, I expected more of you!”

“Actually…” Todoroki interrupts him from his seat all the way on the edge of the group of chairs huddled around Izuku’s as he starts raising his right hand, his tone even, his expression neutral, “I was the one who wrote that question.”

In an instant, silence fills the room, everyone eyes moving in between Todoroki and Izuku, an expression of absolute horror coming onto the green haired young man’s face.

“TODOROKI?!” Almost everyone in class screams at once, huddling around the other teen’s seat, almost trampling him.

“Holy shit dude, I didn’t know you had it in you!” Ashido is the first to say, grabbing at his hand and shaking it in hers, “Pulling something like this the very first group activity we manage to finally rope you in, that’s incredible!”

“It… it was not a prank?” Todoroki says in a slightly confused tone, “It’s like Asui said, I was legitimately asking him about whatever or not he is All Might’s bastard, and I can’t help but notice how he’s not yet answered my question till now.”

Izuku’s face has taken the permanent shade and form of a ripe tomato, suddenly feeling very aware of everyone’s stare getting back onto him.

“O- Of course I’m not All Might’s… secret love child or anything!” Izuku shrieks out, eyes blown wide, “Heck, I don’t even know if he can have children in the f- first place!”

That was… the wrong thing to say.

“Woah there Midoriya, did you just say you think All Might doesn’t fuck?” Kaminari yells, outraged, earning a triple set of shrieks from Iida, Yaoyorozu and Izuku, “Dude, it’s All Might we’re talking about, everyone loves him, I’m sure he gets plenty of tail if he wants to, he’ll just need to jump into a busy street and ask anyone if they want to smash!”

“Hold on Hold on, he does have a point there,” Kirishima interjects, suddenly pensive, right as Jiro stabs the blonde haired boy in the back with one of her jacks, “Do any of you really imagine All Might take advantage of any of his fans like that? That’d be unmanly as hell! And even then, where the heck would he even have the time to start a family with anyone, having to work as the symbol of peace and our teacher all the time?”

“You haven’t used your single braincell in all the years I’ve known you and you’re using it now?!” Ashido cuts back, shooting a betrayed look at her childhood friend, “Dude, All Might has been active for years, and has been keeping his identity a secret for longer than that, do you really think he wouldn’t have, like a secret family hidden away on the side?”

“I mean, that makes kind of sense,” Sero says with a sheepish tone as he scratches the back of his neck, “Still, I’m still not getting why Midoriya of all people would be his love child? They look nothing alike Todoroki.”

“Eh, maybe he saw the veritable Stalker Shrine to All Might Midoriya has in his room and just assumed,” Shinso drawls back, looking incredibly smug all of a sudden, “I mean, that’s probably the least worrying reason for him to have one at least…”

“How… how do you know that?” Izuku shrieks back, unwittingly confirming Shinso’s words, “And that’s not a stalker shrine, they are limited edition action figures, each of whom are worthy more than my life ten times over!”

“You keep coming out of your room every night and leaving the door open, and I live literally next door to you,” Shinso drawls out, shooting a glare toward Izuku, the dark bags under his eyes even more evident now, “You are not exactly a master of stealth Midoriya, so a couple nights ago I got fed up with it and come to check what the heck you were doing, and here I find your room open and filled to the brim with our teacher’s memorabilia.”

“Hold on, Midori comes out of his room at night?” Ashido cuts in, a surprised look on her face, mirrored by many a member of class 1-A, “Ooooh, does he have a… secret lover or something? Way to go Midoriya!”

“Either that, or he is really loud when he goes to the bathroom,” Shinso says with a shrug, “Either way, I’d like for you to at least keep it down a little, especially since

“ _Oui Oui_ , I can confirm,” Aoyama interjects in a dramatic pose, hands caressing the smooth, sparkling skin of his left cheek, “It’s been horrible, I tell you, I haven’t been able to get my beauty sleep for days!”

“Yeah, at first I thought it was Tokoyami too due to the, you know, caws and shit,” Shinso says with a tired sigh, “But then when I went to complain at his room, I found Midoriya’s room open and, again, his stalker shrine to All Might.”

“F- For the last time, I do not have a Stalker Shrine to All Might!” Izuku yells out, shooting out of his armchair, one finger risen, “And before anyone else says it, no, I am not his secret love child either!”

“You still haven’t told us what you do every night then,” Tokoyami cuts in, a pensive look on his face, “What dark and terrible secrets do you hide from us, helped by the cover of darkness, even despite the hellish cacophonies you seem to attract?”

“Guys, please, while I myself am curious about our Vice President’s criminal activities and blatant disregard of university campus rules,” Iida interjects, now back at Izuku’s side, startling him with a sudden side glare, eyeglasses shining, “I am sure there is a perfectly rational explanation for this, such as Midoriya dangerously and recklessly training himself during night hours, or him having a Pet he has snuck in and has been keeping secret from us in fear of him not being allowed to keep it.”

“Pets aren’t banned from the dorms actually,” Hagakure shoots back, holding a sign in front of her with that same thing written on it, standing right beside a violently blushing Koda, “That’s what Koda said at least.”

“I… Iida is right, I actually spend most of my nights… training my Personas away from here,” Izuku concedes, averting his eyes from everyone, “I… I am still trying to figure them all out fully, and you are all such… powerful people, I have to do it, I need to keep up with every one of you…”

“Still, an appropriate and approved sleep schedule should be paramount to your training, with or without extra training,” Yaoyorozu interjects with a small huff, “As is the respect of your fellow classmates’ own sleep schedules. As Vice President of this class, I expected better from you Midoriya.”

Izuku shrinks back from the sudden if gentle scolding, a resigned sigh escaping Yaoyorozu’s lips at the sight.

“S- sorry, I’ll try to keep it down next time,” Izuku says with a sheepish chuckle, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks, earning an eye roll out of Shinso, “And I’ll try not to neither overexert myself nor to forget about my duties to this class as both her vice president and her student, don’t worry Yaoyorozu.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever you say,” Shinso mutters with another eyeroll, a grimace of disgust appearing on his face as he witnesses Izuku’s blush reddening further under Yaoyorozu’s warm smile, “And please, for the love of God, keep a gag on that pet bird of yours, it gets annoying having to hear it yell at you every damn night you know?””

“Oh, ah… I- I don’t actually have a pet-” Izuku doesn’t even have the time to finish his sentence, his hands extended in front of him in surrender, that Remus, the feathered, traitorous bastard, swoops in from down the boys’ dorms’ stairs, circling the class up above before landing, almost too gracefully, on

“Caw.” Remus says, literally, despite the fact Izuku had seen and heard him actually caw like a proper raven multiple times since he has known him.

“Ok, maybe I do have a pet raven…” Izuku mutters, directing a glare at the offending birds currently puffing up its feathery chest up on his arm.

“Mmmmm, that explains the number of Black Feathers on our floor,” Tokoyami mutters, getting closer to the other corvid on Izuku’s arm, scratching his own mane of black feathers, “I was beginning to worry I was starting to lose some of my luscious feathers already… How reassuring.”

Dark Shadow simply grumbles something intelligible from within the confines of Tokoyami’s jacket, shining eyes maliciously fixed on Izuku’s “pet.”

Ashido, Uraraka and Hagakure coo at the sight, scrambling to get toward Izuku and his “pet” bird, scratching at the

“Awwww, where were you hiding this little cutie Deku?” Uraraka asks, one finger scratching the top of the Raven’s head, Remus preening and melting into her touch, “And so intelligent too, it listened to us talking about it and here he comes, you must have trained him very well.”

“Oh… Oh it… it wasn’t t- that difficult,” Izuku stammers, his blush deepening as Uraraka smiles brightly at him.

“Yeah, right, more like I was the one training you.” Remus caws, Izuku immediately panicking at the sight, his eyes snapping up toward his classmates, the lots of them seemingly unaware of the talking raven currently on his arm, “And relax, you’re the only one who can hear me right now… and maybe the big lug over there, but I’m not sure about it, never tried before with people with Animal Quirks, to these brats I’m just sounding like a normal raven.”

Izuku’s eyes snap toward Koda, his own brows furrowed slightly in confusion as he stares in between the raven and Izuku, only to instantly avert his eyes with a bright blush the second he notices Izuku staring at him.

“Awwww, and what a nice voice too,” Ashido coos, her own hand scratching the Raven’s feathered, puffed up chest, seemingly unaware of his abilities, “I can’t see how you can complain about this little cutie Shinso, he sure sounds like a delight.”

“Yeah, try to have it blast your eardrums with his cries at 2 in the bloody morning,” Shinso grumbles from his seat, glaring at the offending bird in Izuku’s arm, “Does that thing even have a name anyway?”

“Uh, oh, his name is…” Izuku stops, a devious idea shooting through his mind, the talking raven eyes snapping up toward him, almost as if sensing what was about to say.

“Kid, for the love of everything that is holy, don’t you fucking dare call me something stupid like…”

“His name is Small Might,” Izuku says with a large smile, earning an outraged caw from the corvid in his arm, and more coos from the girl currently fussing over him.

“Small Might you say?” Todoroki asks, suddenly at the girls’ side, his eyes fixated on the raven with renewed interest, “Are you sure you are not All Might long lost secret son from another life?”

“Jeez Todoroki, you’re getting obsessed with that story,” Jiro cuts in, a teasing grin of her face as she final caves in and starts scratching at the top of the raven’s head with one of her jacks, “Are we sure you are not the one who’s All Might’s secret love child or something?”

“God, I fucking wish I was…” Todoroki instantly replies, almost unthinkingly, his tone neutral, his eyes widening, if only slightly, after he realizes what he has just said, an awkward silence suddenly feeling the room.

Yaoyorozu sighs, either not reading the room in the slightest, or reading it far too well to know she needed to change topic an fast, “Well, as… unexpected as this whole activity ended up being, at least I feel we’ve gotten to know each other a bit better now at least. It’s a start to a more cohesive class structure at least”

“Still, it seems a bit unfair that only Izuku ended up opening up to us,” Uraraka mutters, a soft look in her eyes as she stares down at the newly christened “Small Might,” “Should we all turn this into 20 questions or something? Just to be fair to him of course…”

“Oh, I know one better!” Ashido shoots back, a wide smile on her lips, “How about we go and show each of our rooms to the entire class! It’s not fair we only know about Izuku’s stalker shrine to All Might after all, and this will surely unite us better as a class!”

“For the last time, it’s not a stalker shrine!” Izuku shoots back, hands raising in the hair in surrender and almost skyrocketing Remus toward the ceiling had it not be for the Raven’s strong grip onto his shirt, suddenly getting very emotional over his supposed Stalker Shrine, “They are limited edition figurines. Limited. Edition. Figurines. I am just a fan who collects them, there is nothing wrong with that, and I bet any fan of All Might would sell out their own mother to have just a fraction of what I have in my room, mark my words!”

* * *

In the end, that took the better part of the afternoon all the way into the evening, the class visiting and rating each other’s rooms, strengthening their bond as a class, and as impromptu dormmates for the 3 years to come.

So, it’s a tired and emotionally drained Izuku who gets back into his room for the night, locking his door behind him, a sigh of relief escaping his lips.

“That went better than I expected…”

“I’d say, Kero.”

Izuku shrieks, jumping up in the air at the sudden voice, turning in a perfect 180° to come face to face with a slowly reappearing Tsuyu, slathered against one of the walls in his rooms.

“Frog Quirk, Kero,” She explains, her wide eyes staring at a now trembling Izuku, “Allows me to mimic any surface I’m pressed against, it’s really useful when it comes to infiltration missions such as this one Kero.”

 _“I am alone with a girl in my room!”_ Izuku traitorous teenage brain can’t help but think, a deep blush spreading across his cheeks at the realization.

Still, he gathers his wits and asks…

“W- What are you d- doing here Tsuyu?!” He says, his voice cracking only a little.

“You haven’t answered to any of my answers during today’s meeting Kero,” Tsuyu says, one fingers coming to her chin, “And everything kind of went crazy after that Kero, with the rooms tours and all Kero, so I’d like that… detailed explanation now Kero…”

“What… what do you mean Tsuyu? I’ve already told the class everything they needed to know…” Izuku says with a nervous chuckle, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck, “What’s more there is to say…”

“You could start on what you did to Uraraka during the incident, Kero,” Tsuyu cuts in, taking a step forward toward Izuku, the young man instantly taking a step back.

“I… I did nothing to U- Uraraka, why, did something happen to Uraraka, what are you talking about Tsuyu, and who’s this Uraraka you are t- talking about?” Izuku stammers out, nervous chuckles escaping his lips, his jitters only getting worse as he notices Tsuyu narrowing her eyes at him.

“Do not take me for an idiot Midoriya, Kero…” Tsuyu says in an harsh tone, “I was there with the both of you, and I saw the… similarities between your Quirk and the “hero” coming to save us Kero, the same hero that was so conveniently linked to her kero.”

Izuku gulps, taking another tentative step back, his back hitting the wall behind him, only for Tsuyu to narrowly corner him there.

“You weren’t there having to listen as that monster beat the crap out of her… her Persona, Kero…” Tsuyu continues, Izuku gulping slowly as she slams her hands against the wall directly on the sides of Izuku’s head, a squeak escaping the young man lips “You weren’t there when she was doubling down in pain because of something we did to her, and you were unable to do anything to help her, Kero, but I was, and it was horrible Kero.”

“So, at the very least, I think you owe me an explanation Kero,” Tsuyu concludes, staring intently inside Izuku’s eyes, “And I think I’ve waited long enough for it, Kero.”

Izuku gulps slowly, his guilt and martyr complex clashing with his stupid, traitorous teenage brain pointing out how she has indeed just been put into a Kabedon, the young man short circuiting, trying to come up with anything to say to her.

“But I can understand you not wanting to talk about it without her present, Kero,” Tsuyu concedes after a long pause, a sigh escaping her lips, “If you want, I can go and bring her here Kero…”

“N- no, it’s fine, it’s fine, n- no need to call Uraraka here!” Izuku says, cheeks burning at the prospect of two whole girls being in his room with him, alone, at night, and not really wanting to disturb his friend this late in the evening, “Ok… Ok… b- basically, all I did was… was transfer a b- bit of my Quirk to her. When… the monster showed up, you saw it right, t- that was her Shadow, her own I- Id… W- well, by d- defeating it, she has g- gained m- mastery over it or something, I don’t k- know, I’m… I’m still pretty confused about it t- too myself…”

“Mmmmm, but I defeated a couple of Shadows too Midoriya Kero, as did many of our classmates, why only Uraraka kero?” Tsuyu mumbles, removing her hands from their place on the wall, allowing Izuku to finally breath freely, one finger going to her chin, “Unless kero… You said she had to defeat her own shadow right, Kero? Is that what we need to do?”

“I- I mean, I guess?” Izuku says, one hand scratching the back of his head in confusion, “I… this is all new to me, I’ve never… I’ve never transmitted my Quirk to anyone before, heck, it wasn’t even my intention in the first place, it just… happened!”

“Mmmmm, it is certainly unheard of Kero,” Tsuyu says with a sigh, “How did she take it Kero? I can only imagine how… traumatic waking up with someone else’s Quirk added to her body must have felt Kero…”

“Oh, uh… She… she looked fine…” Izuku stammers out, trying to remember what happened yesterday in the infirmary with Uraraka, trying to remember her mood, “She was… she looked fine, she was particularly interested in… some aspects of my Quirk really…”

 _“Mostly the monetary part…”_ Izuku thinks with an awkward sigh, earning a curious look from the frog girl still in front of him.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it kero,” Tsuyu says pensive frown on her face, “And… I’m sorry if I sounded threatening to you, I didn’t want to scare you Kero, I’m just really direct when it comes to the safety of the people I care about, Kero…”

“Oh… D- don’t worry Tsuyu, you didn’t scare me…” Izuku says with a nervous chuckle, “And you… you should always say what’s on you mind to me, I d- don’t mind?”

“Really, Kero?” Tsuyu says, her tone slightly surprised, her eyebrows shooting up “People outside of my family usually say I’m rude because of how blunt I am kero, or creepy because of how I look, so aren’t you… scared of me Kero? Disgusted?”

“Of- Of course not!” Izuku almost yells, startling Tsuyu by his sudden shift in tone, “We’re friends right, Tsuyu? I’d never think anything like that about one of my friends!”

“Not even if I told you I can vomit my stomachs out of my mouth and regularly clean them out myself?” Tsuyu asks, eyes sharpening slightly as she looks intently at Izuku’s excited face, gauging for any reaction on his part.

“Incredibly specific example there but no, not even then!” Izuku instantly shoots back, his eyes sparkling a little as his notebook and pen instantly appear in his hands, startling Tsuyu further, his smile never faltering, “In fact, hold on, your Quirk can really do that? That’s awesome Tsuyu, think of all the ways you could exploit that for hero and infiltration work, you’d be able to easily carry thing everywhere without anyone being the wiser!”

“Friends uh, kero?” Tsuyu says, tilting her head to the side as she stares him up and down, “Mmmmm, yes, I guess we are friends Midoriya, Kero, at least that way I’m not the creepiest member of my friend group here, kero.”

Izuku’s enthusiasm falters slightly under the veiled accusation, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips as he sheepishly scratches the back of his neck, his blush coming back to his cheeks, if subdued, at the sight of Tsuyu’s small smirk.

**“Thou art I, and I am Thou…”**

Time slows to a crawl, the by now familiar voice starting in his chanting as a card appears in between the two teens, shining, spinning wildly before stopping right in front of Izuku’s eyes.

A bold II is written right beneath the picture of the card, sporting its current rank of one, and featuring a blonde woman wearing a blue robe, smiling mischievously at him as she is sitting on a silver-coloured throne among a sea of blue hues behind her, one hand aloofly holding a open book to her left, sketches of a Peacock and a Red Songbird appearing on the two pages, her right hand holding a card, aimed face up directly at the onlooker, another rendition of the same arcana, this time featuring an older woman, her smile more teasing than mischievous, striking the same pose, her own card being a third rendition of the same card, this one with a child, in what Izuku assumed was going to be an infinite loop.

**“Thou have forged a New Bond… It shall bring thou closer to your dreams…”**

Before Izuku can strain his eyesight further trying to further decipher the image on the minuscule card within the tiny card within the small card within the card right in front of him, the card slowly starts sinking deep within his chest, a new bond settling inside of him, spreading its warm, budding feeling all around his body, right as time finally crawls back to its normal pace, the voice concluding his verses.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the High Priestess Arcana.”**

“Well, I’m glad we could settle that, kero…” Tsuyu says with a ribbit, a large yawn escaping her mouth, “We better get to sleep soon Kero, wouldn’t want to miss Mr. Aizawa’s return from the hospital Kero…”

Izuku sobers a little at Tsuyu words, the young woman already going to his door and unlocking it open, one foot already outside.

“Goodnight Midoriya kero,” Tsuyu says, turning behind toward the young man, “And try not to… infect any more of our classmates with your Quirk’s cooties, it’s kind of gross, Kero.”

“I’ll… I’ll try not to, Tsuyu,” Izuku sheepishly says, his cheeks reddening a little, “G- Goodnight...”

Tsuyu simply hums in response, exiting Izuku’s room, and closing the door behind her, a sigh of relief coming out of his mouth as he is finally alone back in his room.

“Thank God, I thought she’d never leave!” Remus caws loudly as he erupts from Izuku’s closet, the young man shrieking in surprise, jumping and falling onto his ass with a loud thud, almost knocking his chair over as she earns nothing but loud slams from the nearby wall standing between Izuku’s and Shinso’s rooms.

“Keep it the fuck down, there’s people trying to have their mandatory 4 hours of sleep here!”

* * *

The beauty of modern medicine, other than the fact that it was all financed by the state, completely gratuitous, and top notch thanks to the advent of Quirks, especially for such public servants such as heroes or military academy teachers, was that it worked fast.

So, it came to almost no surprise to anyone, when a mummified, if still standing Eraserhead walked nonchalantly inside Class 1-A’s homeroom, one of his hands in a sling, without much fanfare or issues.

“Good morning class,” He drawls out, beady eyes scanning each and every one of his students, “Losing an entire day of lessons for such petty reasons as your teacher, me, almost dying was not optimal nor logical in the slightest, especially after losing such an important course such as rescue training. We’ll have to recuperate the lost time in the weeks to come, even with supplemental lessons during some Saturdays if necessary.”

Some groans are heard all around the room, Mr Aizawa pointedly ignoring them as he keeps on glaring at his students.

“That being said, I hope you all are ready for one of the most important events of your student life here,” He continues, earning a few concerned glances from his students, “Because in two weeks’ time from now, the UA Sports Festival will take place, the opportunity of a lifetime for the lot of you, so you better not waste it.”

Mixed reactions raise all around the class at Aizawa’s words.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea after the recent villain attack?” Jiro asks with a frown, “If they were to attack the Academy with such a large civilian population inside…”

“Do not worry, Principal Nedzu has already taken several precautions to prevent… any sort of incidents from happening, don’t worry” Aizawa says, his eyes instantly zeroing on Izuku, the young man shrinking a little under his glare, “And I hope none of you is seriously asking me to have the Sports Festival cancelled of course out of some petty concerns over potential villains attacking.”

Everyone falls silent after that.

The UA sports festival was, after all, the most important cultural event among the entirety of Japan, if not worldwide, hero and civilian alike tuning in on their televisions, or be among the chosen few who were able to score one of the constantly sold out tickets one year in advance, to witness the glorious spectacle of a gaggle of barely trained young adults beating the shit out of each other.

It was blood sport rolled into entertainment rolled into limited scouting opportunities for the students involved, each of them realizing full well their performance there could make or break their future careers as heroes, either turning them into eternal, barely underpaid sidekicks to some C-List hero, or skyrocketing atop the hero and popularity charts the second they were out of university.

And the public loved it, modern day gladiatorial combat, where everything really was either win or die.

Izuku gulps, nerves mounting within him, the pressure of the incoming acting like a heavy weight on his shoulders, squashing him down little by little, similar feelings of dread mirrored among all his classmates.

They might have all survived the villains and the shadows…

But were they going to come out of the Sports Festival unscathed, with barely two weeks of preparation before it?

“He’s right, we will not let those jerks dictate our lives any longer!” Uraraka shouts, jumping off her seat, so much determination in her body it’s almost as if its oozing off of her, a dark, resolute look on her face, earning a eyebrow raise from her teacher at her sudden antics, “We are hero students, and we have survived a villain attack AND giant monsters, the least we can do is let those jerks realize no one orders Class 1-A around!”

Everyone’s spirits start lifting at her words, fire literally burning behind her eyes as she stares down everyone in the class.

“And that’s because we’re all going to do our best!” She says, everyone in the class going along with her as she raises her fist in the air, everyone else following suit, “Repeat after me guys, I’m going to do my best!”

“I’m going to do my best!” Everyone even Izuku, even Shinso, even Koda, even Todoroki, even _Bakugou_ reply in kind, with various degrees of enthusiasm or excitement, each of them fired

“Oh, I’m really glad to hear this, Uraraka,” Mr Aizawa drawls in a self-satisfied tone, almost as if he was enjoying every word he was saying, getting everyone’s attention back to him, “Because as the first ranked among all students at the entrance exam, you get to make the opening speech for the Sports Festival this year, on national and international television no less.”

Uraraka’s mood and enthusiasm shatters like glass, her determined look turning into one of horror at Aizawa’s words, her jaw hanging open, a mute wail escaping her as she stumbles, almost falls down at the sudden reveal, earning some sheepish and pitying chuckles from her classmates all around her.

Izuku chuckles awkwardly, looking as Iida manages to direct Uraraka back to her seat before her legs could give out and she ended up crashing against the classroom’s hard floor, his mood lifting slightly.

Izuku didn’t know what the future had in store from them, but he was sure that it couldn’t be any worse or any more dangerous than what they had been through already, and even then, he and his classmates were going to face any adversity the world was going to throw at them, with the same fire and determination his friend has displayed this day.

He was sure of it.

* * *

In a dark alley far, far away from the UA Campus, one woman is breathing her last.

“N- no, stop, you c- can’t kill me!” the woman yells, yellow eyes wide, terror filling her as her body turns stiff, paralyzed, a large gash cutting down her right arm, blood dripping down and staining the dirty alley floor below, “D- do you even know who I am?! You cannot kill me, I have… I have important friends, people that will hunt you down, people who-”

The woman is shushed, one finger going to her lips, her eyes widening as her assailant squats right in front of her, broken katana already in his other hand.

“I know exactly who you are,” The man says, voice rumbling, almost echoing in the damp alley’s air, “You are but a selfish little pawn, working under this corrupt, unjust society, who believes herself the Queen of this wretched board, only to be a slave to your own desires. You are a fake, so easily swayed by your selfish dreams you got blinded by them, became their slave, forfeiting your humanity in the process…”

“And I…” The man continues, raising his sword in the air, aiming it at the woman’s right eye, “I, am the only thing standing in between people like you, between this festering, corrupt society, and the bright, shining future of true heroism He will lead us to, he has been trying to lead us too for such a long time.”

The sword lunges, a sick, squelching sound echoing around the alley as he takes the heroine’s yellow eye out, not even a scream coming out of her frozen, paralyzed mouth as he did so.

“Poor little pawn, fallen in a game she didn’t even know she was playing,” The man sighs, standing back into a hunched position, tongue coming out of his mouth and tasting the blood and brain matter still on his blade, “When the sickness spreads too much, one has to cull his cattle before it’s too late, had you not given in to your selfish impulses, had you been a true hero, maybe none of this would have happened to you…”

With a single leap, the man is already up on the nearby rooftop, perching on it like a gargoyle, staring down on the dark alley as one of the woman’s sidekicks finally stumbles upon her corpse, the poor girl shrieking in fright at the sight.

“Mmmmm, still young, a bit too emotional at the sight of the grim reality we live in for my tastes, terrible choice of mistress too…” The man mutters, pensively staring down on the scene unfolding beneath him, hand tightening around his Katana, only to instantly relax as he sees the young sidekick quickly picking herself up before going to her Hero’s side, checking on her condition before producing a phone from her utility belt, seemingly calling for reinforcements, “But… I can see some potential there, if only her soul were to… harden a little. I guess I’ve spilled enough blood for today.”

The man sighs, turning away from the scene beneath him, not wanting to encounter any more fake heroes for the time being as he sprints across the rooftops with superhuman speed, red and white eyes staring directly in front of him behind his ragged mask, jumping over three more sidekick running over their mistress location under him.

“This place is getting a bit too crowded for my tastes, too many fake heroes, I must not be blinded by my own hubris, I must not fall victim to my own overconfidence like those… those monsters” He mutters all the way, jumping and sprinting across the city at superhuman speeds, “I guess a change of pace is needed for the time being, at least for my holy crusade not to end with my worthless life yet.”

A deranged smile appears on his face, more akin to the gritting, baring of teeth than anything with any actual mirth behind it.

“I’ve heard Hosu City is horrible this time of the year.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back out of the "slump," lodged back in the proper "plot," so to speak.
> 
> Next up, things will happen, maybe, since those characters kinda need to train in the two week before the Sports Festival, which leaves little to no time for social links you know? And Izuku needs to get to fusing now, as well as get the "no pressure kid but you need to become me and fast otherwise the world goes to shit" talk from All Might before the festival...
> 
> Peacocks are birds sacred to Juno BTW.
> 
> Also no, the dead hero is a nameless OC (Do not steal), I did not just kill Mt Lady or Uwabami despite the two of them being a perfect example of EVERYTHING that is wrong with the Hero System according to Stain, mostly because the two of them alongside Midnight can also become an incredible chance for some color commentary on female heroines having to be always on point at all times and with tantalizing costumes so to get popular while male heroes can be, like, amorphous like Thirteen or overweight as Fatgum or be Endeavor's crusty unwashed ass and can still get popular and/or a good job despite not being aesthetically pleasing, and I can't exactly pass on that.
> 
> (And no, this is not me projecting, Midnight literally says this very thing when explaining why her costume is LIKE THAT in the manga, so I'm vindicated by the text this time!).


	12. Fool Arcana: Rank IV; Cornucopia Arcana: Rank I

“I am slowly losing my grip on One for All.”

Those were not the words that Izuku was expecting, back in one of UA’s private rooms, when he had accepted his mentor’s proposal of spending dinner with him.

He was expecting small talk, or maybe some advice for the incoming Sports Festival, but not… This.

“What, how…” Izuku says, at a loss for words, his wide eyes staring at the skeletal man in front of him.

“The battle with those villains has taken a toll on my… already not optimal body,” All Might grimly explains, one hand coming to his left side, “Passing my power onto you only sped up the process of my forced retirement, limiting my time limit to barely an hour now…”

“Oh, I… I can give it back to you if it’s a problem for me having it!” Izuku instantly proposes, staring at his mentor with an apprehensive gaze, “I can make do with just Persona for now, it’s no big deal really, and I can’t possibly let you weaken yourself further just for me…”

“Ah, do not worry Young Midoriya,” All Might replies with a sigh, “Even if you were to give me back my power, hell, even if you were to heal me like you promised me, my time as the symbol of peace would still come to an end soon.”

Izuku’s worry only worsens, his hands gripping at the edge of the wooden table in front of him, two empty bowls of meat sitting idly in there.

“I am Old, Midoriya,” All Might admits with a sigh, “I’m not in my prime anymore, even without my injury, even at my full might, I’d still be on my way to retirement, maybe a decade down the line. What is going to happen when that becomes a necessity then? Let my legacy, my Quirk’s legacy die with me, too old and frail to ever be able to train someone to take my place? Heroes in this business usually retire way earlier than the age I pushed myself to, even at full power, I would soon become a… relic of a bygone era, maybe able to reach his seventies before having to truly retire, or worse...”

All Might pauses, a dark look crossing his eyes.

“I’d never had to truly contemplate my own Mortality till today, Young Midoriya,” He continues, Izuku gulping at his sombre words, “Not even when I got this scar, not even when someone I cared about pointed out to me how, indeed, I was probably going to die one day like the idiot I am, going out in a blaze of glory against some villain most likely, doing my hardest to save someone that isn’t myself…”

“So, no Midoriya, as much as it pains me to admit it, I cannot remain my image as the symbol of peace for much longer,” All Might announces, “It will be the next generation of heroes, you and your classmates, the ones that will pick up that mantle. My legacy as a teacher, rather than as a hero, will be what needs to live on, that needs to survive me, and that means you, Midoriya. You will need to become as good… no, better than I ever was as the Number One Hero, then I will truly consider my work done, and my legacy secured.”

“Ah, so no pressure uh…” Izuku mutters, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips.

“I’m sorry, Midoriya, I know I’ve been placing a burden on your shoulders, one a teacher should never force upon his student,” All Might replies, his gaze softening, “But with the little time I have left, and with those… Villains noticing my weakness, planning their attacks on me and on my legacy, now more than ever, the world needs new hope, a new promise for a future hero, ready to become the new Pillars hoisting the world on their own shoulders, the new Symbol of Peace…”

“Which is where the Sports Festival comes in,” Izuku concludes for him, his hands trembling at his side even as his gaze sharpens, his eyes focusing back onto All Might.

“Exactly, Young Midoriya!” All Might exclaims, his speech growing more and more exalted, bursts of blood erupting off his mouth with each word, “With the recent villain attack, all eyes will be on you and your class now. This will be the perfect opportunity, for you to show the world exactly what you’re made of, for you to stake your claim on my mantle, for you to tell the world not to worry, because you are here now!”

Izuku gulps, feeling all the… the trust, the great expectation his mentor had placed on him, placed on his success, all the weight of his mantle, of the world, a world that needed to be protected, from itself as it needed to be protected from others, a duty being passed down from one hero to the other, like a Olympic torch carrying over the spark, the flame of hope and justice within it.

Izuku would have preferred not to stand out too much, to take the Sports Festival easy, trying not to attract any more attention onto himself, especially after the USJ, but now… with such a duty placed on him by his mentor, right as he could feel all the faith his childhood hero had in him through their bond…

He couldn’t possibly let All Might down.

“I… I will All Might!” Izuku says, as serious and as determined as he has never been before, “I will… I will excel at the Sports Festival, and I will make you proud!”

“Ah, as if you haven’t done so already, Young Midoriya!” All Might replies, Izuku’s heart somersaulting in his chest at his words, “It’s not me you’ll have to impress and make proud, but the countless heroes and villains out there, they will be the ones who shall be amazed and cowered by your dedication! Will you do it, Young Midoriya? Will you work toward becoming the next Symbol of Peace?!”

Izuku’s nerves settle within himself, determination flaring, one hand tightening in a fist, feeling surer of himself than he had ever felt in his entire life.

“Y- Yes, All Might!”

**“Thou art I, and I am Thou…”**

Time slows to a crawl, All Might’s card erupting from Izuku’s chest, spinning and shining bright, almost blinding Izuku as it moved from its previous rank of III to its new rank of IV.

**“Your bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring you closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana.”**

The cards slowly sink back within him, time resuming its proper pace as the words gives out his final warnings.

**“Thy affinity to the Fool Arcana has strengthened. Thou can now empower with One for All Personas belonging to an Arcana whose link is equal or higher to this one.”**

Izuku’s eyes widen slightly at the sudden reveal, still remembering the incredible Power he had managed to infuse Quixote with through One for All, even despite its many drawbacks, his mind already trying to remember which of his other links met the criteria for this new, unforeseen power up.

“That’s the spirit Young Midoriya,” All Might exclaims, more blood coming out of his mouth at his excitement, “I shall leave you to it then, I don’t want to keep you away from your friends or, worse, your training because of me then.”

Izuku barely nods at All Might’s words, his mind going a mile a minute as it was. He needed to train, so that he could ace the Sports Festival, and later become the next number one hero.

He couldn’t let his mentor down, he needed to become better, stronger, faster, the very best, like no one ever was…

And that, meant getting new, stronger personas.

It was finally time to see what this “Fusion” business was all about.

* * *

The fire of his own determination flees Izuku’s spirit the second he is sitting inside the Velvet Room, the process being patently explained to him by a smirking Igor, doubts plaguing Izuku’s mind all the while as his six, current personas are sprawled in front of him on the table, Igor sitting idly on the other side.

“So… You are one hundred percent sure they are not going to… to die when I fuse them?” Izuku asks for what he feels like the millionth time, having managed to sneak up in the Velvet Room right after class, no one the wiser, his hands trembling at his sides, “Or... Hurt them, in any way?”

“Die is a relative term for a Persona dear guest, so do not worry…” Igor reassures him with an enigmatic smile, “Fused personas simply… fade away, disappear within the ocean of your own soul, ready to be called back at a moment notice thanks to your Attendant’s compendium. They are not, after all, properly alive in the first place, so you should not feel any... worry or guilt in disposing of them in such a way.”

“Them not being alive doesn’t make them feel any less real…” Izuku mutters with a sigh, his eyes staring at the six personas in front of him, a grim resolve entering eyes “W- What am I supposed to do now?”

“You, dear guest? Nothing.” Igor replies with a pleased hum, “I shall be the one doing most of the work here, you’ll simply need to point me to the preferred Persona from the possible combinations presented.”

With a flicker of his hand, several, semi-transparent persona cards start hovering mid-air, above Izuku’s personas,

“At the very moment, your soul can only handle personas up to a certain level, those of higher level will simply… ignore your call to form a contract with them, or outright destroy your very psyche if bonded, so I say we can exclude these combinations for now…” Igor continue as he flickers his hand once again, many ghostly cards are already disappearing from in front of him, leaving a little more than half of them behind, “You are able to combine any of your acquired personas in any combinations of three or two. However, while you would normally be able to include your… Original Persona in the process, it seems yours is a… special case, not allowing any sort of fusion with any other persona outside of very specific circumstances...”

Quixote disappears, fading back into Izuku’s mind, no possible persona disappearing from the illusory board floating in the air as it did so.

“Once fused, the new persona will then be strengthened by your existing bonds with their respective Arcana, and will inherit certain skills from the parent personas that were used to create it,” Igor continues, wide, bloodshot eyes staring straight into Izuku’s, as if he could see the very soul within him, “So, dear guest… what is your desire for today’s fusion?”

Izuku gulps, looking at the possibilities in front of him, as well as the threads, shimmering, almost invisible, that connected them to his own personas, pointing at each possible combination.

“First I… can I see any persona resulting from a combination with Surya?” Izuku asks, spectral cards disappearing at a his verbal command, revealing only a few combinations behind.

“You sure about that, kiddo?” Anna asks with a yawn the older woman sprawled on her own side of the couch, still reading All Might’s Unofficial Autobiography, seemingly bored with everything that was happening at the moment, “He might have only one skill at the moment but a reflecting defence, especially one against such a common element among both heroes and villains such as fire, would be a great asset during the sports festival…”

“No, I’m sure.” Izuku says, his mouth turning into a grim line, “When I used it against Kacchan… it was far too powerful, far too uncontrolled. Had it not been for his timely dodge, at it not been for Recovery Girl’s power, I don’t know… I don’t know how I would have lived knowing what I’d done to him, what could have happened to him…”

“You do realize the only reason why it was as strong as that, was because it was… reflecting that pomeranian on crack’s attack, right?” Remus points out with a tired caw, “It was either you or him, nothing you could do about it…”

“You know, is what I’ve been telling me myself ever since it happened, but honestly Remus?” Izuku shoots back, his tone calm, almost resigned, “I’m training to become a Hero. It should never be a case of either me or them, it should never be a case of… of aggressive, almost devastating escalation of force. What happens if I am, say, trying to apprehend a purse snatcher, or some other petty criminal, and he accidentally uses his fire quirk on me while I have Surya or another persona with a reflecting resistance up? I’m not killing criminals just because I can, that wouldn’t make me any different from a villain.”

“You’re still so naïve,” Remus groans, a tired sigh escaping his beak, “It’s a harsh world out there kiddo, and sometimes all there is to it, is either kill or get killed. You better remember that, because one day you might find yourself having to make a choice, the choice between killing someone or letting someone else die, and I hope for you that that day you’ll make the right choice.”

Izuku’s resolve falters, only slightly, his hands trembling at his sides, averting his gaze from the raven at his side, turning back toward his Personas.

“Well, that day will come later,” Izuku concludes, narrowing his eyes at the possible fusions, “Now, we’re at the Sports Festival, and I’m not accidentally killing one of my friends just to win a stupid competition, not even for All Might’s legacy. He wouldn’t want that from me.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that…” Anna chuckles from behind her book, “Speaking of which, God, who even believes this drivel? It makes it sound like All Might got out of the womb fully formed and carrying a busload of injured orphans on his back! At least it’s good for a laugh from time to time!”

Izuku ignores his attendant antics, focusing instead on the possibilities spanning before him.

He needed to go at it logically.

He still had no idea about the Quirks of any other members of any other class out there, so he couldn’t exactly prepare for that either. He did, however, know enough about his classmates’ Quirk to be able to evince eventual elemental strengths and weaknesses they could display, as well as optimal resistances he needed to develop in case of open battle against them.

Todoroki and Bakugou were, ironically, the easiest to counter despite their overwhelming power. Despite Todoroki’s access to both fire and ice, he seemed to never deploy his own fire in direct combat, preferring the ice part of his Quirk as well as his right side, allowing him to gather one Persona to counter his Ice Quirk, while easily prepare a second persona to counter Bakugou’s own explosions, which counted in turn as fire damage. That meant Izuku needed to Min Max his personas, preparing at least one for each of the two students’ strengths, starting with a direct downgrade to Bakugou’s counter.

Among the possible combinations, only one seemed to have at least a resistance to Fire

“I fuse… Yellow Pixie and Surya,” Izuku says, the two cards floating in the air in front of him at a gesture of Igor’s hand.

The spectral cards disappear, Igor positioning one card to his left, another to his right, a circle of light appearing around them as a line of light connected the two cards, shining brightly, almost blinding Izuku as they crash against each other, another bright light erupting at the contact, revealing the yellow card of his new Persona, floating in front of Izuku’s eyes.

“Thou art I, and I art Thou,” Izuku hears, the Card burning in blue flame, a spectral vision of his new persona appearing in front of him, “But honestly, who even cares at this point? I am Nata Taishi, The Third Lotus Prince, and I only long for the eternal fight!”

The Persona looks like a metallic, yellow robot wearing a pink chest armour piece and an equally coloured scarf, as well as dark boots and gloves, black rings hovering around his wrists. Despite floating, the Persona seems to be balancing himself onto large, metallic wheels currently on fire, leaving streaks of flames behind him as he seemingly fidgets on place, erratically moving his wheels around a non-existent floor.

“Oh, Chariot Arcana, that’s one of mine!” Anna cheers, suddenly interested, her book forgotten to the side as she gets closer to Izuku’s new persona, “Since our bond is still just rank one, this Persona should get only a little amount of power now, but since you have currently this persona on, our bond should be able to advance further with every interaction we take, which means stronger Chariot personas later down the line. You better remember that when you decide what kinds of Personas you have on at any given time…”

As if on cue, the Persona begins to sparkle, shining brightly for a couple seconds, before returning to normal, the spectral figure disappearing soon after, leaving his yellow card behind.

“Level 7…” Izuku mutters, intensively looking at his new card, “And he has gained Agi from Surya, as well as Dia and Patra from Pixie… I guess it’s one level per link then…”

His notebook is already in his hand, already drawing a chart with his various social links on them.

“Currently my best ranked Bond is Aeon at Max…” Izuku mutters with a pensive look, before addressing back Igor, “Is there any possible combination of Personas that can give me a Persona of the Aeon arcana? Not just among the ones I have on right now, among all personas, I need to see if I can get to it with the ones I have right now…”

“Oh, I’m sorry my dear guest, but I’m afraid I cannot answer your question…” Igor responds in the most unapologetic tone possible, “The sea of one’s soul is as vast and as deep as the infinite vastness of space, we do not know what lays beneath it, only what we might get based on what offerings we made to it, and only at the time of the offering itself...”

The spectral board of cards reappears in the air, new combinations appearing alongside the few ones that didn’t use neither of Izuku’s fused personas.

“As of what we can see now, however, I can safely say that no, you cannot call for a Persona of the Aeon Arcana yet…”

“Darn it…” Izuku curses under his breath, narrowing his eyes at the new possibilities, already writing as much as he could on a new page, “Ok, what about Fool? Something resistant to ice possibly?”

“Mmmmm, I’m sorry dear guest, you don’t have anything fulfilling those criteria either…” Igor replies, multiple combinations disappearing, revealing only a couple others, “You do, however, have some possible fusions with high resistance to ice damage if you’re interested.”

“Darn, ok… ok… I’ll get Todoroki first, then I can go for more generic picks…” Izuku mutters, looking at his limited choice of Personas, “I guess this one is good. Magician is also still at Rank I, but completely nullifying Todoroki’s ice is honestly a great advantage here…Ok, I’ve decided, I’ll go for this one, I can get back Pixie and Succubus from Anna later anyway…”

The spectral cards disappear once more, the two sides of the fusion moving back up in the air, surrounded by the same circle of light from before, before colliding against each other in a flash of light, revealing a new, red coloured card in their place, soon swallowed into blue flame.

“Thou art I-Hee, and I art Thou-Ho!” Izuku’s new persona exclaims in a jovial tone, revealing the unmistakable, chubby figure of a strange creature, completely white in colour, as if he made out of bright snow, the creature wearing large blue shoes, a blue cap with two long tails dangling behind him, a yellow smiley face stamped on it, as well as a blue jester collar around his neck, each end of it ending with jingling bells.

“Hee-Ho, I’m Jack Frost-Ho! I know I’m just a pawn for you-ho, but I hope you’ll take care of me-Hee, Ho!”

Izuku furrows his brow at the Persona bizarre speech pattern, barely registering as he shines brightly, the Magician Arcana empowering him with one level, before disappearing back into his red card.

“This one got Dia, Tarukaja and Marin Karin instead…” Izuku mutters, looking at his new persona’s card with a frown, “And as I thought, only gained one level… I assume Mabufu must be some sort of stronger version of Bufu…”

“Nope,” Remus interjects from his perch, somehow managing to pop the p despite having a beak rather than a mouth, “That’s Bufula, Mabufu means it affects multiple targets. Ma- is a commonly used prefix among personas’ skills, usually for abilities with multiple targets to affect, so you better remember this in case you find similarly worded skills in the future…”

“Multiple targets uh…” Izuku mumbles, pensively eying his new persona card, “That would have been helpful at the USJ, I could have used this against all those villains right at the start rather than have Mr. Aizawa handle the lot of them alone…”

“Eh, no use crying over spilled milk kid,” Remus shoots back, shrugging his feathery “shoulders,” before instantly turning predatory toward Izuku, “Aaaaaanyway, you just got two new empty spots there, want to fill them back? Maybe… with some Devil’s Painter Patented Personas?! Come on, it’s just 9000 yens per pull, it’s literally a steal!”

“Yeah, a steal for you maybe, featherbrain…” Anna shoots back in a mocking tone, “Kid, don’t listen to him, what you want right now, is getting back the old reliable. I can get some of your lost personas back, that way you can try up some of the combinations you couldn’t go for earlier, what do you say?”

Izuku completely ignores his two attendants, frantically writing and drawing new, possible combinations and information on his notebook, his eyes only raising up to see the few remaining combinations with his now three personas on the board, as well as the ones he still remembered from when he had his other personas on.

“Anna, I need Succubus and Yellow Pixie back,” Izuku says, absent-mindedly producing a huge stack of cash and giving it to his attendant, the older woman accepting it with a cheer right before sticking her tongue out at a betrayed Remus.

Izuku barely waits for the two personas to show back on the table, before he has already chosen which spectral card to fuse them into, Succubus, Angel and Yellow Pixie raising into the air into a triangle position, a circle of light surrounding them before meeting each other in the middle, a bright light revealing their new, blue card, soon swallowed in flames, the new persona once again appearing as a spectral figure in front of him.

“I am thou, and Thou art I,” the new persona bellows, their voice distorted under the heavy armour, red wings flapping idly in the wind behind him, “I am Archangel, harbinger of the will of the Divine, may my blessing and my sword never falter under your guidance!”

A shining light, this time brighter than the two previous fusions, begins shining around Izuku’s new persona, the two ranks of the Justice Arcana empowering them further, before fading back into his blue card, Izuku hastily snatching it from mid-air, eyes wide and hyper-focused on the new info he had juts gained, mind working a mile a minute.

“Two levels, as I suspected…” Izuku mutters, already writing up every difference between this persona, and the one he had seen back before the fusion, back in their “pure” form, before inheriting the skills of their “Parents” and the new levels, “This one got Rebellion, Zio, Patra and Garu… and what’s this?”

Izuku brows furrow as a second, red sword card is found beneath Archangel Card, his eyes furrowing in confusion at the sight.

“Justice?” Izuku reads, his train of thought momentarily derailed, “What’s this, it doesn’t even have a description or anything, is this another skill card…?”

“Oh, that must be a Fusion Spell Skill Card,” Remus points out in a surprised tone, “Haven’t seen one of those in a while, I guess you got some gems out of one of your personas back in the previous two incidents?”

“Yes? I- I thought they were more monetary compensation from my Quirk…” Izuku says in a confused one, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck, losing his focus, “What… what do those things have to do with this skill card anyway?”

“Those gems are actually powerful catalysts,” Remus continues with a solemn tone, “When fusing one specific persona in order to obtain another specific persona, the energy resulting will ignite the stones consuming them and allowing you to obtain that special skill card. And I say special, because while the other skill cards can only be taught to your personas, and even then, only to those who have an affinity to learn them and only once, Fusion Skill Cards give you the skill on them to yourself, and they are usually obscenely powerful, if also obscenely pricy in terms of stamina or special points. That means that you’re now able to use the Judgement Special Skill by yourself, regardless of what Persona you have out, really convenient uh?”

As if on cue, the skill card explodes into a bright shower of red light, its brilliance radiating all over Izuku, the young man feeling something new stir and settle within the back of his mind, if only for a moment.

He doesn’t even have the time to process what has just happened that Anna is instantly crying out in outrage at the Raven’s words.

“Oi, how come this is the first time I’ve heard about this?!” Anna shouts out, narrowing her eyes at the bird beside Izuku, almost trampling over the younger man as she tries to reach him with her muscled arms over the large sofa, Izuku conflicted between the desire to stop her from murdering the bird, and the fear of not knowing where it would be appropriate to hold her without touching anything too… squishy, “You… greedy bastard, you told me to sell all those stupid gems to get more money for your blasted Gacha Game, getting some of those things could have made a real difference during my final-”

“Careful now friend, wouldn’t want to say something we might both regret later… _Anna_.” Remus pointedly shoots back, Anna’s mood seemingly sobering up a little as her anger calms down, returning to her side of the sofa, Izuku’s heart slowing down a little at the sudden lack of contact even as his eyes start darting in between the two figures “We can discuss about the faults of anyone and everyone later, when the kid is back with his friends, safe and sheltered from the harsh world we live in.”

“Don’t… don’t talk about me as if I’m not here,” Izuku finally says, his eyes narrowing slightly, “I’m… I’m not stupid you know, is there something you are not telling me?”

“Uhm, sorry kid, but you are not far enough on our relationship to unlock my tragic backstory yet…” Remus cheekily answers, before pointing his beak at Anna, “As for her? I’m not telling you anything until she tells you about it myself. I might be a greedy old bastard, but even I know there are boundaries you should never cross...”

Izuku isn’t satisfied with this answer, his eyes darting toward Anna, a concerned look on his face.

“Ah, don’t worry kiddo, we’ll get to it eventually,” Anna replies with a soft, melancholic smile, “Tell you what, your book is almost over, how about you do another little favour for me, so you can rank me up nice and easy, maybe then I’ll answer to some of the questions you might have for me…”

Izuku keeps staring at her, unsure, a resigned sigh escaping his mouth as he sees the almost puppy dog quality of his attendant’s pleading eyes.

“Fine,” Izuku breaths out, defeated, “F- fine, but you are talking to me about… whatever is happening here after that, I… I don’t want you to hold back something that might be hurting you… If there is something I can do to help you, I want to do it, especially after all the help you’ve given me.”

“Mmmmm, you really are a good boy, kiddo” Anna says with a small, gentle smile, Izuku blushing slightly at her words “You’re helping me well enough simply by being alive and happy right now, surrounded by friends and without a care in the world outside of stupid, stupid university bullshit…”

“As for my next Request… you’re about to enter the sports festival, right?” She asks next, her mood lifting up slightly at the mention of the event, right as Izuku’s nerves shove their way back into his body full force at the prospect of the titanic task he’ll have to face, “I want you to arrive at least among the… Top twelve? Was it twelve or sixteen for the last round? Eh, basically, I just want you to reach the third stage of the Sports Festival, it shouldn’t be too hard for such a fine, strapping gentleman such as yourself, right?”

Izuku blanches slightly at her words, his previous determination to excel at the Sports Festival to appease All Might’s, now empowered by Anna’s own desire to see him succeed, clashing with Izuku’s own naturally worried and terrorized demeanour.

“W- why is it so important for you that I do that?” Izuku asks, his eyes narrowing slightly, “What do you… g- gain from this?”

“Me? Nothing Kid, I told you, I’m your attendant, I only want what is best for you…” Anna says with a soft chuckle, “But in truth… I do actually have an ulterior motive here. As you know, the sports festival is broadcasted all over the country and, later, the world, so to allow for its participants to be scouted by many a hero agency out there, and there is an… old friend of mine, who I particularly want for you to... astonish and surprise with your Quirk, so to speak.”

Izuku furrows his brows in confusion at the older woman’s cryptic words, opening his mouth to ask further questions, only to be shushed out by one of her chuckles.

“Ah ah ah, if you want to know more, you’ll have to wait and see Kiddo,” She replies with a soft smirk, “Now, weren’t you boosting yourself up with some new personas in sight of the Sports Festival? How about we get back to that, I think you still have enough money for a couple more registered personas…”

“Or a spin!” Remus instantly interjects, jumping up and down his perch on the Gacha Game, “Come on kid, you haven’t used any of my services in days, I need my fix goddammit, and there is only so many fusions you can do with the Personas you have, how about getting some fresh material uh?”

“Mmmmm, you’re not wrong there,” Izuku mutters, eyeing Remus’ Gacha Machine pensively, only to sweat-drop the second he puts an hand into his pockets, only to find them unfortunately empty, “Eh, I’m sorry Remus, but I’m a bit short on cash at the moment, would you accept, like… a IOU or something for today?”

“Short on cash?” Remus repeats in a mocking tone, “How can you be short on cash, you should have just gotten a major haul of money directly from the last Shadow Outbreak, what, did you spend it all already in meat bowls and hookers or something?”

“N- not really,” Izuku says, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks as he diverts his gaze from him, unable to look the corvid in the eyes, “I… I’ve split it all with Uraraka. My… My Quirk seemed to, I don’t know, recognize her as part of my… Team? Party? Recognized her as a fellow persona user? I… I’m not sure, anyway, I… I talked to her about it, she told me about her own dream, her own reasons to become a hero, and she needs the money more than me, so I, like… let her keep half of my winnings this time… So, s-sorry, but I don’t have any more m- money to spend on Personas today…”

A betrayed caw escapes Remus, Izuku flinching at the sound, right as Anna starts snickering at his side.

“Oh man Kiddo, giving half your hard earned income to a girl you literally met just a week before because she just told you a sob story or two?” Anna replies, an easy smirk appearing on her lips, eyes full of mirth eyeing Izuku up even as he was getting scolded loudly by a very enraged and suddenly potentially poorer talking crow, “Man, the Purple Haired weirdo sure was right…”

“You really are a Simp.”

* * *

It’s hard to raise your social links when everyone is hard at work training for one of the most important events of their lives.

Which meant that, no matter how hard he tried, all of Izuku’s attempts at starting… anything with his friends, be it either a joint training groups, or scheduling a series of one on one sparring sessions, especially with some of his already existing bonds, had been constantly and without fail rebuffed and looked upon with suspicion by his classmates, much to the young man’s chagrin.

Not even Uraraka was up for it, the only time Izuku had tried to go to her asking if she was up for a training session of her new Quirk with him, managing to muster what little courage he had in him to do so, that the young woman was already sprinting out of the room the second she saw him coming toward her, barrelling down the crowd of curious onlooker currently gathering around their classroom, a hasty “SorrygottagoIleftmycatonthestove!” shouted at him the second she had started getting in motion.

Izuku would have felt a bit bad about it had it not been for Shinso butting in with his own explanation to everyone’s diffidence of him.

“You’re far too crafty, Midoriya,” He had said, right as he had come to the young man’s side, still looking forlornly at the now wide open classroom’s door, some curious onlookers already starting to crowd around their classroom’s door, “No one here wants to train with you because of it… or, well, train with anyone for that matter. This is a competition, and we’re all just opponents in the making right now, no one wants you or anyone else stealing their strategies before we can even start participating, you know?”

Izuku gulps, completely ignoring as Bakugou started making even more enemies for himself and their class by association by starting shit with the other classes’ students crowding around their door, not having thought about it that way.

Everyone in his class was just as motivated as him to succeed, just as motivated as him to step over everyone else in their academy and reach first place at the Sports Festival, be it for the Glory, the Money, the career opportunities, or, like Izuku, the desire to prove something to someone, be it All Might, Anna’s mysterious friend, or maybe even the world at large…

It was only logical for everyone to be distrustful of everyone else, especially of the one student in class who tended to keep almost maniacal tabs on everyone’s quirks and skills, as it was only logical for everyone in there to also want to keep their best cards hidden from their potential new rivals.

So, Izuku was left to his own devices for two whole weeks, training his body as best as he could with his weights, even as he kept stress making paper crane after paper crane, sometimes even in his sleep, waking up to a room filled to the brim with folded origami, much to his horror and surprise.

Still, there was only so much he could do to train a Quirk like his, especially with no way to properly and safely call out for Shadows to fight against, which meant Izuku now found himself with more time than he could legitimately deal with right now.

The lack of funds also needed to be addressed, especially now that he had decided to split his “shadow income” with Uraraka. He needed to earn more money to sustain his Quirk and get more and more Personas to fuse, and there was no way he was going to leech off his mother for this.

Fortunately, UA University granted an extensive treasure trove of Part Time jobs for his students to choose from.

All he needed to do, was ask his homeroom teacher about them.

* * *

“A Part Time Job here on campus? So close to the Sports Festival?” Mr. Aizawa had drawled one day, right as Izuku had finally found the courage to stop his homeroom teacher after class to ask him about his possibilities, “I’d say, that’s a first. What would you even need that for anyway?”

“W- well… you see…” Izuku had stammered out with a nervous chuckle, “My… my Quirk requires… Huge amounts of money t- to… properly function, like… I need to buy the… the materials for the cards and then having to… bind them in solid gold or s- something… I need lots of money for it…”

“That sounds… logical,” Mr. Aizawa had said, a tired sigh escaping his still bandaged mouth, “Fine, but don’t come to me crying if you didn’t have the time to prepare for the sports festival because you were too busy with your new job…”

“I… I will not, don’t worry,” Izuku hastily replies, a spark growing in his eyes as the siren song of more personas, more things to discover, to analyse, to use in his journey to become a hero calls out for him.

“Fine then…” “Aizawa drawls out, sounding incredibly bored about the whole ordeal, “We’re short on jobs this year unfortunately, so you only have a choice between three potential weekend and after class activities then. You will be officially classified as an intern to the University, so you are not be actually getting “paid,” so to speak, at least not officially, which means everything you’ll do will be kept strictly out of the books.”

Izuku’s eyes widened slightly at his teacher’s words, another tired sigh escaping his lips.

“Trust me, this will be a far better deal than anything you’ll gona get when you’ll start interning for a hero one day,” Mr. Aizawa explains in a dry tone, “The first job is working at the university Cafeteria under Lunch Rush. The pay is around 2000 yen a day at the start, with potential bonuses for continued good work on your part. You can work there during lunch hours, which means you’ll have to eat your lunch only after your shift there, which means you’ll be probably unable to eat alongside your classmates now, so you better keep that in mind…”

“Next, we have Maintenance work under Power Loader for the support course,” Aizawa continues with a bored drawl, barely registering the younger man perking up at the mention of the pro hero, “At the moment they are not accepting anyone from other classes on it due to the incoming sports festival, but I’m sure you’ll be able to get into it as soon as the courses start back after the sports festival. You’ll get 20000 yen a day - Don’t get too excited about this Midoriya, there is a reason why we’d pay you this much – Anyway, 20000 yen a day, once every Saturday and Sunday afternoons, starting 2 PM sharp way into the night hours, you’ll have to clean up the mess the Support Department left in their wake at the end of their week of courses, as well as defuse any potential world ending, singularity achieving, exploding murder robots they might still have laying around in there. I’ve heard this year class is also… particularly promising on that front, so have fun with that if you decide to go for it…”

“And the last and certainly THE least, Teaching Assistant. This is a job usually reserved to third years or older students, but given your… admirable score on the written part of our entrance exam, I think we can make an exception for you there…” Mr. Aizawa continues, Izuku blushing slightly under the sudden preferential treatment, “Oh, don’t think this is a favour to you, we’re just all really short on help this year on that front, so we’ll have to do with you. For starters, this job is also put on hold due to the Sports Festival, and even then, you’ll just have to present yourself at the teachers’ lounge every Saturday and Sunday mornings, and you’ll get paid 5000 yens a day to make our lives easier, ranging from simply bringing us our coffees to outright do our job and correct and grade some of the written test other courses outside of yours have been put in. Of course, all jobs will not be available during exam weeks, this one more than others, but the Business and General Studies departments still require more extensive, theoretical gradings all over the year, which means more work for us to slog through, which means more work for you to be burdened with.”

“So, wait…” Izuku ponders out loud, furrowing his brows as he goes deep in thought “That means I can only do the Cafeteria job right now?”

“That, or you could wait for after the sports festival and go for one of the other two jobs…” Aizawa says in a dry tone, leaning slightly into his chair, “Not that I’d really recommend that either, honestly, all of those jobs have a pretty high rate of people simply quitting them halfway due to the added stress of Hero Academy life on top of the one you’d get from the jobs themselves, I’d say you’d be happier doing neither of them…”

“Or do… all three of them at the same time!” Izuku concludes, one fist striking his open palm as a determined look appears on his face, even as his teacher drops off his chair with a loud thud at his words.

“What? Didn’t you just hear me?” Aizawa drawls, using his only good arm to climb up his desk and glare at his student, “Even just one of these jobs is going to stretch your diligence and work ethic beyond its limits, and you want to do all three of them at the same time? You’re going to lose all your weekends AND your lunch hours by doing this!”

“Is there anything within Campus regulation physically or legally stopping me from doing it?” Izuku replies, suddenly on a roll, his mind already racking up the numbers, “Because if there isn’t, I guess I’ll just have to go Plus Ultra then.”

“That… is not how our Motto works,” Aizawa almost growls, tiredly sitting back up on his chair, “You’re going to overwork yourself to death that way, all with the classes, the part time jobs and god knows what else, you do realize that, yes?”

“I’ve lived a long and happy life,” Izuku lies with a completely straight face, “It’s a worthy sacrifice to the altar of more Personas.”

Izuku can swear one of Aizawa’s eyes is twitching, glaring at him from beneath his mask of bandages, only for all tension to leave his body after one, long second spent on it.

“Fine then, it’s your funeral…” Aizawa drawls, an excited Izuku vibrating excitedly at the sudden enabling of his suicidal work ethic, “Don’t say I never warned you, now go and present yourself to Lunch Rush at the cafeteria, you’re starting tomorrow, so don’t be late.”

Izuku simply nods before sprinting out of the door, a tired sigh coming out of Aizawa’s mouth as he looks at his student go, the young man almost skipping his way out of the classroom for how excited he was, the beginning of a stress headache starting to form between Aizawa’s already aching temples.

“That kid is going to be the death of me, I swear...”

* * *

“Do you have any experiences with the customer service industry?”

This is exactly the first thing the Aiya Delivery Girl asks him the second Lunch Rush leaves the school’s kitchen for the day, leaving the two teens alone to have Izuku better familiarize himself with the job, the pro hero having readily accepted his request to get hired as a part timer without even asking for any references from him.

The UA Cafeteria main kitchen is obscenely huge, filled to the brim with utensils and machinery Izuku had only ever dreamt of, top quality produce filling its pantries and larders to the brim, Izuku getting disoriented at the sight, used as he was with more modest means to prepare one’s meal.

“I… I wouldn’t say I have… experience on its p- per say…” Izuku stammers out, embarrassed “I’m… I’m sure I can d- do my best if you w- were to g- give me a cha-”

“So that’s a no,” The delivery girl drawls out in her monotone, cutting Izuku before he could even finish his words, “Anything you can do at all? Without causing any disaster that is, this is UA, we’re not letting you wash the halls of the cafeteria or our dishes if you’re going to make a mess of yourself, we have an image to maintain after all.”

“I… I c- can cook…” Izuku mumbles out, averting his gaze from the other teen, an embarrassed pout appearing on his face, “I… I mean…”

“I said we have an image to maintain,” she says, the barest hint of annoyance seeping in her monotone, “Anything coming out of this kitchen needs to have the Lunch Rush’s and Aiya’s Patented Seals of Approval before we even think of serving them to one of our customers, and no offense, but if we started serving some random student mediocre amateur hour dishes, that would honestly be an insult to our students as well as my ancestors.”

“My… My food isn’t mediocre!” Izuku sputters out, his pride stung by the woman’s droning critique, looking back at her, a fire beneath his eyes, “M- me and my mom worked long and hard to perfect my food you know, and everyone in m- my class loves it, I d- don’t care about any s- seals of approval or a- about your f- family legacy, I’m… I’m not allowing you t- to insult it!”

The Aiya Delivery Girl simply raises one eyebrow at his sudden outburst, Izuku’s fire quelling instantly as he realizes he has just raised his voice against a girl for such a petty reason, his cheeks instantly burning red as he attempts to stammer out an apology.

“You got… Guts,” She announces, seemingly unperturbed as she cuts Izuku out from his attempt to an apology, “Not enough guts to finish one of our Mega Meat Bowls specials, but enough to talk back to your direct superior after a minor insult to your food. Now I’m sure you cannot work costumer service.”

Izuku gulps at her dismissal, his fist tightening at his side. He needs as much money as he can get to fund his Quirk, to gather more personas, especially so close to the Sports Festival, the young man ready to beg for a chance if it was needed, only for the Aiya Delivery girl to simply sigh and sits at one of the kitchen many work tables.

“Still, only a real cook would be that passionate about his food, no matter how mediocre it is…” She continues in her dry monotone, eyeing Izuku up from her sit on her stool, “So, let’s see if you are only good for tipping and talking big then, or if you are really as good as you say you are.”

“Prepare something for me, I’ll judge if it’s worthy of the Aiya seal of approval,” She order him in a neutral, almost matter of fact tone, right before a small, tired sigh escaping her mouth, “And please, do not waste my time today, I have plenty of deliveries to make today, so you have twenty minutes tops to finish it or I’m out of here…”

Izuku gulps, not having to be told twice as he rushes at one of the empty kitchen counters, already grabbing as much produce and utensils as he could get his hands on

“Something to do, something to do…”

* * *

“He- Here it is,” Izuku finally says, hastily dropping his dish in front of the Aiya Delivery Girl, “A- A Midoriya P- Patented M- Mantaiko P- Pasta…”

The other woman simply raises an eyebrow at his creation, one fork already pocking at it, a… not particularly trustful look on her face.

“Is this… Mayonnaise?” she asks, the barest hint of concern entering her voice as she looks at her pasta, a small, almost imperceptible grimace crossing her lips.

“Y- yes…” Izuku stammers out, suddenly getting very sweaty, “S- some… some milk got spilled in it by mistake so I needed to… to find s- something to c- counteract its… its t- taste and all…”

“And you added… Mayonnaise to do it…” She hums, Izuku’s chances of getting this job shrinking by the second, the young man gulping as she finally takes a stab at it, wrapping some spaghetti around her fork and, finally, taking her first bite, her eyes closed.

Izuku looks at her, her face devoid of any expression or emotions, her eyes still closed, and he waits in bathed breath for her reaction, any reaction out of her.

This lasts for ten more second before she finally opens back her eyes and looks back at him.

“I am currently feeling as if I’m being embraced by the strong yet gentle arms of a mayo coloured body builder,” She says in a monotone, her dead eyes staring right at Izuku’s face, completely devoid of any emotion, “While I’m being bathed in a river of milk as a flock of tiny, winged babies pressing and rubbing their soft, tiny hands all around my many erogenous zones.”

She takes another bite, maintaining eye contact with a progressively more disturbed Izuku.

“You made love to this dish,” She says, a third bite entering her mouth, followed by a fourth, her voice betraying nothing “You got the Aiya seal of approval, you’re UA’s Cafeteria new cook starting today, congratulation.”

“R- really?!” Izuku asks, almost sounding surprised, “I… I can work here?”

“Uh uh,” the Delivery Girl simply says after another bite, “As long as you keep producing this? Sure, you can work here as much as you like.”

“T- thank you!” Izuku yells, ecstatic over having finally gotten the job, “I… I will not let you down I swear!”

“Oh, I sincerely hope for you you won’t,” She says in between bites, “Our students tend to get particularly… cranky when their food is not the quality they ordered you know? Wouldn’t want to have to witness another angry mob with torches and pitchforks at our doors lynching someone over it again, last year was one time too much already…”

Izuku gulps, chuckling awkwardly at what he hopes is just the strange girl’s sense of humour, right as she absent-mindedly keeps eating at her dish.

“I’m Nakamura Aika by the way,” She says in between bites, her tone softening, if only a little, “I hope we can get along on this job, and I’ll be sure to cheer for you during the Sports Festival, both as a colleague, and as a valued costumer to our prized delivery service.”

A faint blush appears on Izuku’s cheeks, a small, bashful smile complimenting it as he can feel the faint bond forming in between him and his new friend, his new work colleague, fledgling and budding as it was.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou.”**

Time slows to a crawl as the usual voice booms along, a shining card appearing in between Izuku and Nakamura, spinning, swinging wildly before stopping, straight in front of Izuku, featuring a simple ceramic bowl, slightly cracked at one end, filled to the brim with food, its produce erupting out of it like a fountain, the large bowl floating within a dark void surrounded by bright stars, a bold XXI written beneath the image.

**“Thou have forged a new Bond... It shall bring Thou closer to Thy dreams.”**

The card slowly begins to sink inside Izuku’s chest, sporting its initial rank of I, time crawling back to its proper pace as the voice concludes in its chanting.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating personas of the Cornucopia Arcana.”**

“Well then, with the pleasantries out of the way now…” Nakamura says, by then having finished her meal, her eyes narrowing, if just a little, “I need you to prepare me one hundred rendition of this same dish, I need to check if you’re consistent with your output, if you’re satisfactory then we’re having Uncle Lunch Rush approve it as tomorrow daily dish.”

Izuku startles at her sudden request, nevertheless getting back to the kitchen counters, frantically getting back to work as he hoists an obscenely large pot of water on the fire, salting the water as soon as he saw it almost boiling but not quite.

“Regardless of the quality of the food, you’re also helping me with my deliveries today,” Nakamura continues in her monotone, “We’re bringing your dishes with us, can’t have all this food going to waste, so I hope you know how to ride at least one of the Company’s scooters…”

“I… I have a licence, yes…” Izuku stammers out, failing to mention how he still didn’t own even a simple scooter himself despite having indeed gotten a driver licence.

“Good, you’re helping me bring all of this to the nearest homeless shelter then,” She says in an uninterested tone, “If I find your driving skills satisfactory I might even task you with one of our deliveries one day, maybe in some easy places to reach, like Hosu or maybe even Sumaru City…”

Izuku barely registers the young woman’s statement, still concentrating as he prepared a large pot of sauce for his gargantuan pot filled with 100 portions worthy pasta, his back to the other teen, still feeling her completely flat stare borrowing right into his back.

This was only the start of some gruelling days of work for our hero, trying to stack up as much money as he could in sight of the ever-encroaching Sports Festival.

* * *

Times flies by, as if the calendar was a long line of days, and it had been sped up at a breakneck pace, leading straight into the faithful day of the UA Sports Festival.

Worldwide, heroes and villains, civilians and vigilantes, old and young people alike tuned on their televisions, their phones, their computers, to witness one of the most important events in their generation, the new World Olympic, three different competitions, each in turn divided into three, subsequent branches.

While all eyes would have been usually aimed onto the Third Years’ Sports Festival, both due to their imminent introduction into the Superhero Workforce, as well as their generally more refined battle strategies and better control over Quirks, this year was different…

No, during this year sports festival, all eyes were fixated instead onto the first years instead, and especially onto Class 1-A, after their spectacular and sensational brush with death, not even a couple weeks before, everyone waiting like vultures for their spectacular victory... or for their ignominious defeat at the hands of the other courses.

And some of those eyes, were more interested, more hopeful, more malicious, more worried than others.

* * *

Among the seats of the first years’ large stadium, several heroes wait in bathed breath the beginning of the events, yellow eyes watching in barely restrained hunger the open doors leading to the various classes’ locker rooms.

“Remember brothers, Mr. S. said to keep an eye out for any potential leaks to instruct back into the Family,” One of them mutters under her breath, “Keep an eye out for any… suspicious activities from any of these upstarts, we don’t want another Disaster-Class Shadow breaching containment this close to so many unaffiliated heroes, people might start asking the wrong kind of questions that way, and that’s the last thing any of us wants…”

Across the stadium, several other heroes hum in agreement, as if they could hear her despite the large distance and quantity of noisy people standing in between them.

“Good, let’s hope everything keeps going according to plan then,” She whispers, the sound barely registered from the people all around her, and yet still heard by her unseen companions, hidden within the crowds, “And while we’re at it, let’s scout for potential new recruits, as well as any potential new… Troublemakers…”

The word is hissed like an insult, some of the heroes grimacing and scowling at their leader’s words.

“After all, we must always keep an eye for those who are destined to be something greater than they are,” She continues, a small, malicious grin appearing on her lips, “Just like we must always… gently remind those whose cookies are only meant to crumble, of their true place in the society the Family is moving forward to.”

Small, matching grins appear all around the stadium and beyond at her words, a couple cackles escaping some of the more eager heroes’ mouths.

“Oh, it’s starting, I’m closing the communication for the time being, only call each other if something unexpected happens…” She mutters as she notices two announcers start on their commentary, up onto their booth, officially beginning the presentation of the UA Sports Festival.

“We are all but a Mirror to the Brothers,” She concludes, her words mirrored by many a costumed hero inside and outside the stadium as they end their conversation, “We are all but a Mirror to the Lovers.”

“And may we only Die to Die again.”

* * *

In a darkened bar, hidden away from prying eyes, Kurogiri is cleaning a spotless mug with a washcloth, seemingly ignoring his companions as he kept on doing his menial, pointless work, so to keep himself as busy as he could, least he attracted the attention of either his charge or his master onto himself.

“Now you’ll see sensei…” Shigaraki growls as the screen shows the empty fields of the UA stadium, the stadium’s seats filled to the brim with costumed heroes and civilians alike, the young man scratching at his neck in anger and frustration at the sight, “Now you’ll see the… the bastards who destroyed our Nomu! Oh, how I’d wish I’d had one of those… those brats in my hands right now…”

The screen behind them, no image seemingly being broadcasted on it, stays silent, the ancient horror sitting on the other end of the screen peering carefully at his own screens, deep inside his lair, his mangled form connected to medical machineries and large tubes, barely held together by the miracles of modern medicine as well as pure, unfiltered, endless spite.

And yet, nonetheless, still sporting a large, twisted grin beneath his scarred, eyeless visage, right as he saw without seeing the events unfolding on the screens in front of him.

* * *

In the largest room of Inaba’s best and only Inn, the Uraraka family is huddled around the large, flat tv screen, older than any of them combined, yet still functioning despite the centuries of age it must have had, the entire town population seemingly invited there to witness their beloved daughter debut into the heroic world.

“Ah, they grow up so fast…” One of the older people sitting comfortably on one of the sofas inside the large room coos, her eyes squinting at the image in front of her, “Why, it seems it was just yesterday when she was coming to our Tofu Shop to get the day’s order for the Inn…”

“And now she’s going to beat the crap out of some punks, and on National TV no less!” Uraraka’s mom cheers from her own seat on the floor, her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her, waiting for her daughter to finally show up, “I can’t believe she’s keeping the family tradition alive, our ancestors are going to be so proud of her!”

Everyone nods and cheers in agreement with her, her own husband beside her chuckling softly at his wife’s antics, the couple happy and filled with pride, even despite the deep, dark bags sitting beneath both of their eyes.

No one even questions the presence of the large, scarred red fox, sitting on the lap of one of the many old people sitting around the room, gently and absent-mindedly getting petted and scratched behind her ears, soft, content growls escaping her mouth even as her own eyes keep on peering at the screen, focused on the events unfolding on it.

* * *

In her own apartment, Midoriya Inko is currently biting her nails in worry, her heart hammering against her chest as she waits for her son, her baby to finally show up on screen, her nerves wrecking her as she ponders of the countless, infinite ways for her son to die or hurt himself this day.

 _“Please be careful Izuku,”_ She thinks, wide eyes already threatening to spill some tears, “ _Please for the love of God be careful, I don’t know what I’d do if something were to happen to you…”_

* * *

In a dingy apartment somewhere, right in the middle of nowhere, an old man, his short stature curved with age, hums in boredom as he zaps Television channels, sitting on his own, cheap, stained sofa, a gigantic meat bowl on his lap, still untouched, almost dwarfing him in size.

“Bullshit, reality tv show, bullshit, news channel, bullshit, bullshit, propaganda, even more bullshit…” He hums under his breath, a grimace of disgust marring his face as he passes each channel at top speed, barely even registering what he was seeing, “God, can’t a old man have something worthwhile to watch while eating his meat in peace? Or is that too much to ask?”

For a fraction of a second, the channel he’s on is showing the UA’s Stadium, the old man barely registering it as he’s already zapping past it at almost sonic speeds, only for his brain to finally catch up with his eyes.

He freezes, his hand stopping on his remote tampering, right before he quickly moves back to the previous channels, getting back to the official live stream of the UA Sports Festival.

“It’s… that time of the year again uh?” He mutters with a melancholic smile, as the large UA Stadium comes into view once again, “Damn, I’m getting old, I almost… forgot…”

He sighs, noticing how he had managed to find the First Years’ Sports Festival Streaming, shrugging as he finally starts digging in on his gigantic bowl of meat.

“Eh, it’s as good to watch as anything else on TV today…” He shrugs, almost swallowing the first large piece of meat whole, staining his crumpled shirt with its sauce, “And at the very least, I’ll see some teenagers beating the crap out of one another.”

“Oh, and wasn’t Toshi’s first hero class participating in this or something?” He mutters back after a while, swallowing another bite of meat with a large gulp, “Ah, can’t wait to see how poorly that knucklehead has managed to train those brats, that’s going to be hilarious!”

* * *

In the Velvet Room, Anna and Remus have set their divergences aside the two attendants literally on the edge of their respective seats as they watch over the large, flat, blue TV screen they had somehow managed to sneak inside, the contraption powering up and showing the First Years Sports Festival despite not being attached to any kind of power source, Anna’s and Izuku’s sofa having been dragged all the way to the edge of the room just to see it.

“You better not fuck this up Kid…” Remus mumbles under his breath, perched as he is on the sofa’s backrest, completely ignoring both his fellow attendant as she starts biting her nails in worry at his side “Not after all the work and money you put into this.”

Igor simply sighs, ignoring the ruckus coming from his colleagues as he continues his card reading, completely indifferent to what was happening to the world outside the little corner of his room.

* * *

On the rooftops of Hosu City, a solitary figure stalks his prey, almost as if he was gliding across the rooftops like an angel of vengeance, mangled sword in one hand, large, bloodshot red eyes trained onto his target below.

He jumps over a rooftop to another, barely registering the chatters of the people living within the homes he’s passing, barely thinking about their idle, blissfully unaware lives, or about the bread and circuses they are currently partaking in, sanitized blood sports for the hungry masses.

All he cared about right now, was his mission, his holy crusade, and purging the world from the unworthy and the corrupted.

Everything else were merely… distractions, in the grand scheme of things, things preventing him from achieving his dream of a perfect world.

Unworthy of his attention and his time.

So concentrated as he was on his own hunt, however, the figure had almost doesn’t notice the presence of his own pursuer stalking him from below, hidden away in the same dimly lit always he was using as hunting grounds, shining armour glistening despite the low lights.

Almost being the keyword here.

* * *

Inside his own VIP Booth on top of the first years’ stadium, one Yagi Toshinori waits in bathed breath for his class, his successor, his legacy to appear from those large doors, the skeletal hero standing on the edge of his seat as he waits for the inevitable to happen.

 _“Do your best Young Midoriya, do not hold anything back,”_ He thinks, narrowed eyes staring down the empty field beneath him, _“If there was ever a time to go plus ultra… That time is today!”_

* * *

“Don’t you dare hold anything back today, Shoto…” A man grumbles in his own VIP booth, fire frizzling from his mask and costume as, flaring up with the worsening of his mood, “You are the culmination of your father’s dream. You alone are able to rival that… joke of a Number One Hero…”

“I have put so much time, so much effort to train you… you, and your perfect Quirk, strong enough to surpass even him, and all in my name, all as my weapon, my pawn, my… greatest masterpiece!” The man growls, gritting his teeth in anger and frustration, yellow eyes glaring hatefully at the grounds below.

“So, you better do you daddy proud today, kid,” he growls, fire burning bright and warm like the embers of his rage, of his hatred, his envy, all funnelling within his own dream, within his twisted desires, reflecting into his own son.

“You don’t want to turn up like one of the other failures now, do you?”

* * *

“If Katsuki dares not holding back that awful personality of his and makes a scene on national fucking television I’m gona beat his ass so raw It’s gona to turn it into fucking leather I swear!”

“C- Calm down dear, y- you know all t- this stress isn’t good for your b- blood pressure…”

* * *

Sliding across the lonely roads on her trusty scooter, everyone by now glued to their televisions as they watched the Sports Festival unfold, one Nakamura Aika is doing her delivery rounds, a casket filled with meat bowls of various sizes firmly strapped on the back of her motorcycle, headphones in her ears as she listens to the UA Sports Festival’s official podcast, her face completely devoid of any emotions.

“Kick their ass, Midoriya,” She says in a dry monotone, her eyes still fixed on the road, her hands gripping her scooter’s handle just a bit tighter than before.

* * *

“You OK there Mt Lady?” the Pro Hero Kamui Woods asks in a worried tone, one hand going to his colleague’s and rival’s shoulder, shaking her gently as she kept staring at the large stadium, “You looked out of it for a second there, were you talking to someone?”

“Uh… No, nothing, don’t worry…” The fellow pro hero mumbles out, shaking her head from side to side right before a large smile appears on her face, “I was just… I was just being bummed out for not having been able to scout for any sidekicks or interns this year you know, that’s all.”

“Ah, tell me about it,” the Pro Hero Death Arms says with a resigned sigh, “But we’re doing good work here today guys, so don’t worry. After all, they did need pro heroes to patrol the premises, right? No one wants a repeat of the USJ, especially not when there are so many civilians packed in here, so we better all be alert and ready for anything.”

“Oh, don’t worry boys,” Mt Lady dismissively says, her grin widening, “You know no one will ever be more dedicated than me when it comes to save pe- Oooooh, is that a Big Bang Burger food stall? Damn, that’s one of my favourites, let’s go there, we need to… investigate if there are any villains disguised there!”

She weasels her way in between the two heroes, almost skipping toward the spotted food stall, only causing Kamui Woods to sigh tiredly at his colleague’s antics before going after her, Death Arms in tow.

“Come on boys, I’m sure I can get a discount for the first burgers if I try hard enough,” She chuckles, her colleagues barely keeping up with her, her grin carefree and wide.

Her large, yellow eyes shining mischievously all the while.

* * *

“It’s almost time.”

Izuku gulps, eyeing the door leading toward the large stadium outside, toward the beginning of the Sports Festival, the stage for what could easily become either his greatest accomplishment, or his greatest failure depending on how he played it today.

“Before we go, I do have an announcement to make…” Todoroki says, minutes before the start of the Sports Festival, attracting everyone’s attention as he approaches a still nervous Midoriya.

“You might deny your ties to All Might all you want,” He begins, Izuku sputtering at his words, some of his classmates rolling their eyes at Todoroki apparent fixation on that, “And I honestly don’t care about any of that. What I care about, is winning this thing, and prove the world that I’m the strongest here. But to do so, I’ll need to defeat the man who managed to destroy the monster not even All Might could truly stop. And that’s you, Midoriya.”

Izuku’s eyes widen, his brain completely ignoring everyone’s cries of outrage at Todoroki’s words, be them due to his assessment of Izuku being one of the strongest in the class, or springing to his own defence.

“I’ve never come here with the intention to make… friends, so this? This is a declaration of war, against you, Midoriya” Todoroki continues, unperturbed by everyone reaction, “I’m sorry it had to come to this, but I just wanted to let you know. Nothing personal.”

“T- Thank you f- for telling m- me I guess?” Izuku stammers out, confused on what to make of… any of this, right as the horn signalling the start of the UA Sports Festival finally rings, the students standing up from their seats, each with different degrees of nerves and jitters on them, and making their way toward the exit to their assigned locker room, toward the long corridor leading into the large stadium in front of them.

Izuku gulps, steeling his nerves, as he and his classmates step out into the bright lights of the stadium, and the cheers of the crowds all around them.

The UA Sports Festival had finally started.

* * *

And in the ocean of the collective consciousness, one small, cerulean butterfly flies above its surface, gliding, fluttering above the rings and echoes erupting across the once still water…

As something deep within it stirs and turns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than expected.
> 
> Alternative ending:
> 
> "I've come to make an announcement," Todoroki said, a couple minutes before the start of the Sports Festival, everyone's eyes suddenly on him.
> 
> "Midoriya Izuku is a Bitchass Motherfucker..."
> 
> There is a Food Wars reference in here, is pretty easy to spot.
> 
> Cornucopia Arcana is not an actual arcana (then again we're using Thot Deck Arcanas in persona, and those aren't real Arcanas either, that bitch Alisteir Crowley made them in the 40, honestly fuck that guy), and includes the persona 3 Aeon Arcana cards, as well as the Minor Arcana suits from Persona 4 (Sword, Cup, Coin and Wand). It technically counts as World Arcana, but doesn't use actual World Arcana Personas.


	13. Magician Arcana: Rank II; Hanged Man Arcana: Rank I; Story Event: The Obstacle Race; Story Event: The Cavalry Battle

“And now, for the athlete oath, the first placed on the Heroic Course Entrance Exam, Uraraka Ochako!”

The Sports Festival hasn’t even started yet, and there might already be some casualties among Class 1-A, as one Uraraka Ochako stiffens freezes as the Umpire, the R-Rated Hero Midnight herself, calls her on stage to deliver her opening speech.

Completely unaware of her own class’ cheers of support, Uraraka robotically stomps onward, walking up on stage as she is broadcasted on national television, everyone’s eyes suddenly on her, the young woman sweating buckets under the sudden attention.

She’s trembling, her wide eyes staring down the crowds of students, heroes, the cameras peering deep within her soul, the young woman gulping as the other classes start whispering among themselves, probably about her.

“I… I don’t know what to say really, and I don’t… I don’t know what’s going t- to happen today…” Uraraka manages to stammer out with an awkward chuckle, “But… But I’m certain of one thing…”

She closes her eyes, breathing in a long gulp of air, before breathing it out with a loud sigh, her eyes opening back, suddenly sharpened, focused, a determined frown appearing on her face.

“Everyone…” She shouts into the microphone, one fist raising into the air, “We’re all gona to do our best!”

An awkward silence fills the stadium, a couple heroes and students sporting insect heads starting to emit cricket noises as a runaway tumbleweed from one of Snipe’s training grounds rolls onto the stadium, only to awkwardly roll away soon after, an nervous chuckle escaping Uraraka’s mouth at the cold reaction from the crowds.

“And… Plus Ultra?” She tries again, and this time the effect is instantaneous.

“PLUS ULTRA!” Everyone shouts, the two words having seemingly galvanized both crowds and students alike as they all jump in the air, their fists in the air as they exult alongside her, the wall of noise instantly hitting Uraraka and almost making her fall off the stage.

“Well then, with that out of the way,” The R-Rated Hero Midnight dismissively says, almost shoving Uraraka off centre stage as she takes back the spotlight, “Let’s begin this year sports festival with a bang! Here’s to everyone’s favourite Qualifier Event…”

A giant roulette appears onto the large screens all around the stadium, rolling several names of potential starting activities, almost to fast to be seen by human eyes, until stopping to…

“The Obstacle Race!”

* * *

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the First Years’ UA Sports Festival Qualifiers! I am the Voice Hero: Present Mic, and I will be your host today alongside my lovely colleague, the infamous Bandaged Hero: Mummy Man!”

“Why the hell did I even agree to participate to this farce?” Aizawa growls from his side of the commentator booth, bleary eyes peering down at the preparing contestant below.

“We begin this year qualifiers with a bang, dear listeners!” Present Mic loudly keeps on commenting, completely ignoring his companion tired sigh at his side, “An Extreme Rules Four Kilometres Obstacle race, among all members of all eleven classes of our prestigious first years, a high octane, adrenaline filled rush the likes of which you’ve never seen before! Now, any comments on this from our guest commentator?”

“I want to get back to sleep…” Aizawa drawls, only earning a laugh from Present Mic at his dry reply, the beginning of a dull headache starting to form behind Aizawa’s temples…

“Oh, and it seems we’re just about to start!” Present Mic yells, slapping one hand onto Aizawa’s back and almost making him fall from his seat, “Stay tuned dear listeners, for an action packed day filled with trials, drama and teenage angst! Friendships will be tested, rivalries will be sparked, some teenagers will probably cry for their mother after a near death experience… But glory will be everlasting, to the ones who’ll manage to overcome our fiendishly difficult… Obstacle Course!”

* * *

Izuku’s first plan for the obstacle course, was to simply call out Quixote, and rush off the exit via the generally superior speed offered by a horse compared to the one of a teenager’s, even a super powered one at that, own two legs, and then galop his way to the finish line.

Unfortunately for him, he didn’t consider three major factors in this devilish plan of his.

First factor was that horses, even supernatural ones, while indeed generally faster than a human on the long run, tended to have incredibly slow starts. Way more legs to take into account when speeding up, and way smaller brains to govern them, their bodies seemingly designed by some cruel and twisted god to easily break and fall at the first obstacle they find, which gave Izuku a particularly large disadvantage at his starting line, making him lose more ground than he had taken into account.

Second, was that the entrance leading into the course proper, had been seemingly built far too small for 11 entire classes filled with people to go through it, Izuku and his peers suddenly squeezed through the narrow passageway, not helped by the sudden appearance of a horse and knight added into the mix, Izuku being veritably bottlenecked into the starting line even before he could even take a step forward.

And third, was that this was a no hold barred type of trial.

Which meant people could sabotage their own opponents as hard and as badly as they pleased-

Izuku should have expected the ice erupting off of Todoroki the second he had gained the lead from the bulk of the other runners, engulfing their legs into ice and blocking them in place, especially when he could feel the cold seeping through his own legs via his bond with Quixote, blocking him in place alongside the other contestants.

Well, alongside some of the other contestants.

“Need a hand there, Midoriya?”

Izuku raises his eyes, noticing a bored looking Shinso literally walking over the heads of some of the other contestants, their eyes glazed over and vacant, and Izuku ALMOST answers to him, before all of his braincells finally come back from whatever break they had been taking till now as he forcibly zips his mouth closed.

“Ah, should I’ve have known I couldn’t have tricked the smartest guy in class that easily…” Shinso says, a small smirk appearing on his face, “Well, see you at the finish line then, try not to make me wait too long for you…”

He is off, other students also breaking off from their own entrapments with their respective Quirks, or never getting trapped in the first place, Izuku’s resolve hardening at the sight.

“I will not be left behind this easily,” He says, stepping upward from his spot on Quixote’s lap, climbing onto him and balancing precariously on the horse’s head before jumping upward, “Change of plans… persona!”

Quixote disappear in a burst of blue flame, freaking out the students huddling all around him and making them fall down after the sudden loss of matter at their sides, as a large, armoured winged humanoid appears instead upward, grabbing Izuku bridal style and soaring up into the air, away from the dangers of Todoroki’s ice.

“Fret not My Liege, for I shall be your wings and sword today!” Archangel bellows, hovering several kilometres in the air as he dashes onward, the wind pressure hitting Izuku square in the face.

“S- slow down a little!” Izuku stammers out, his persona slowing down to more manageable speed, especially for someone with a weakness to wind, the two managing to reach the few students leading the race, Todoroki in first place, none of them the wiser.

“Alright, they haven’t noticed us yet,” Izuku mutters, peering down at his opponents, “And even if they did, I don’t think any of them would be able to reach us up here, barring any incident we should be able to-”

“DO. NOT. BE. AFRAID.” A chorus of distorted, metallic voices erupt from the ground, as gargantuan 0-Pointers erupt from the ground beneath them, unmasked, towering above the students below them, their heads coming level with Izuku’s flying persona, “FOR. WE. ARE. **EVERYWHERE**!”

“What is an obstacle race without some obstacles ladies and gentlefolks!” Present Mic’s voice bursts out from the stadium, more and more 0-Pointers emerging from the ground, the other runners catching up to them and crowding at the mouth of their small, robots filled arena, “And here’s our first obstacle, ROBOT DISCO INFERNO!”

“But wait, there’s more!”

As if on cue, Mechanical replicas of the Shadow Balls from the entrance exam erupt from the back of the 0-Pointers, their long tongues extended as they rush toward the students below, as well as toward a still airborne Izuku.

“These guys again?!” Izuku yells out, eyes growing wide as memories of the Entrance Exam come rushing into him, of one of those very robots almost squashing Uraraka flat with its fist, right as Archangel swerves out of the way of a slow moving, devastating fist, Izuku almost losing his balance onto him for the sheer wind blast caused by the gigantic machine, “Crap, no time for Vietnam flashbacks now, Sukukaja!”

Izuku and Archangel shine brightly, the two suddenly feeling lighter, more slippery as they effortlessly dodge another slow fist, and just in time as a surge of ice erupts upwards, encasing the 0-Pointer in ice and almost nicking at them.

“Todoroki…” Izuku almost growls, the other teen already passing the couple of frozen 0-Pointers he had just taken care off, barely sparing a glance behind him as they fall down onto some unsuspecting students, “Alright, change of plan again, we need to avoid these scrapheaps Archangel, fly higher and pass over them, they should be too slow to properly hit us now...”

“Aye, my liege!” Archangel bellows, flying upwards and passing over a nearby 0-Pointer, deftly avoiding a colliding Mecha-Ball, the Faux Shadow crashing against the Giant Robot’s head and exploding in a ball of flames.

“Would be too much to hope that that earned me a pack uh?” Izuku chuckles awkwardly, right as Archangel swerves to the right, narrowly avoiding Bakugou’s body as he explodes his way upwards.

“OUT OF MY WAY DEKU!” Bakugou yells, already surpassing him as he shoots downward after Todoroki, “STRONGEST BASTARD IN CLASS MY ASS! I’LL SHOW HIM WHO’S THE REAL DEAL HERE!”

Izuku doesn’t have time to get back his bearings, right as more and more students reaching at him using the 0-Pointer as a launching pad.

“Heya Midoriya, long time no see uh?” Sero cheekily says as he waves a two fingered salute at him, already shooting tape off his elbows toward Izuku’s flying persona, “Mind giving me a lift?”

Archangel swerves once again, narrowly avoiding Sero’s attempt at high jacking him, only for gravity to quickly do its course, Sero falling downward, more tape expended to sling his way safely into the ground, getting back into the race with barely a scratch.

Right as Tokoyami and his Dark Shadow arrive closely behind him, gunning straight for Izuku’s persona.

“ANNOYING FLAHSLIGHT!” Dark Shadow screams, eyes burning with hatred as he slingshots toward Archangels, carrying a slightly dazed Todoroki all the way, “YOU THOUGHT I COULDN’T RECOGNIZE YOU WITH ALL THAT SCRAP ON? ONLY I CAN RULE THESE SKIES!”

“Jesus Christ guys, chill out a little!” Izuku yells, avoiding Dark Shadow’s lunge right as a massive explosion erupts from behind them, the bright light coming from it blinding him as Tokoyami and Dark Shadow are blasted off, a cry of pain coming out of Tokoyami’s Quirk as a path is carved in the middle of the horde of 0-Pointers, the bulk of the students quickly rushing in onward, Yaoyorozu in the lead driving…

“Get a move on, slow coaches!” Yaoyorozu yells, loud enough even Izuku can hear up in the air, her… motorcycle easily leaving her opponents in the dust as she quickly reaches and out-speeds the squabbling Bakugou and Todoroki on the lead of the race, and almost running over Sero, Kirishima and a couple of Class B students in the process.

“Oh come on, that’s not fair!” Izuku, the hypocrite, yells loudly, his eyes focusing once more onto the race at hand, “We’re wasted enough time with this Archangel, we need to catch up to them!”

“Yes, my liege!”

* * *

“Ah, it seems the lead has been taken by many a student of your class, Aizawa!” Present Mic yells from his announcer booth, wiggling his eyebrow all the while, his face getting uncomfortably close to Aizawa’s bandages, “Tell me, as their beloved homeroom teacher, what’s their secret? How do you think did they manage to take the lead so early and so easily? Can’t be your medieval teaching methods, that’s for sure.”

Aizawa simply glares down at his fellow teacher from his seat, a tired sigh escaping his lips as Present Mic simply keeps unrelentingly wriggling his eyebrows at him.

“Each and every one of my student has had to face a difficult and life-threatening situation during the USJ incident,” Aizawa drawls out in a bored tone, “Those experiences have honed those same students’ instincts and battle tactics, allowing them to achieve a real world danger sense way above normal hero students’ usual abilities, teaching them to never hesitate in front of their opponent, least their lives were to be taken from them in retaliation, and thus allowing them to easily overcome the… frivolous, fake dangers, that this blasted race provides.”

“You’ve heard it here first folks, horrific trauma is the perfect way to forge the new heroes of tomorrow!” Present Mic summarizes loudly, Aizawa almost falling off his chair at his words, “But morally questionable teaching methods aside, it seems our students have finally managed to get to the second obstacle of today’s obstacle race… THE FALL!”

“And some are more prepared for it than other is seems…” Aizawa says in a dry tone, bleary, tired eyes fixed onto the screens in front of him, showing the race from the prospective of the various Camera Bots spread all over the grounds.

* * *

“This almost feels like cheating…” Izuku mutters, he and Archangel leisurely and easily passing over the large, dark pit beneath them, easily moving forward and getting the lead on his peers.

Everything seems to be going fine for him.

“DEKU!” Bakugou screams as he notices him up above, the hot-headed teen blasting his own way over the Fall, attracting several student’s attention to him and, unfortunately, toward Midoriya, their cry of outrage as Izuku’s manages to take the lead in the air being loud enough Izuku suspects his mother heard them from her house.

With a surge of ice, Todoroki, now third in the lead after narrowly moving over the Fall, erupts skywards toward Izuku, eyes trained onto him as his fist is encased in ice, attempting to get a solid hook onto Midoriya, the few other people in the lead taking advantage of the ice column he had left behind to get a shot at him.

“Oh, thank you Kacchan, very nice of you to get everyone on my case now…” Izuku mutters under his breath, Sukukaja narrowly allowing him to avoid the burnt of his opponents hits, even as he is tossed and thrown about by his own persona, “God, I’m going to get airsick at this rate…”

“All right, change of plan again!” Izuku yells out, having had enough of being a sitting duck for everyone to have a go at, “I need a way to shake them off Archangel, but I don’t want to hurt my friends too badly so… Persona!”

Izuku yells, Archangel disappearing in mid-air, gravity taking his course as Izuku pummels downward to the ground below, right as lounging Kirishima and a student from Class 1-B with a incredibly similar Quirk crash against each other in the place where Izuku had been just a fraction of a second ago.

The fall doesn’t end as violently as someone would have expected, Izuku getting fortuitously caught with a splash by his already running persona, straight into the large cup carried in her hands.

“I am Thou, and Thou art I!” The persona jovial voice chants out, right as the few still airborne students came tumbling down toward a now grounded Izuku, trying to either push him down or surpass him, “I am Matsuo-Sama, goddess of wine, Sake, and all the finer things in life! Let’s toast to our good fortunes and be merry!”

“Sure, let’s do that right now!” Izuku hastily shouts out, jumping out of his persona’s cup drenched in dark, red wine, the liquid mysteriously and quickly evaporating off of him in an instant, as if it had never been there in the first place, as he is already running as fast as he can toward a still motorcycle riding Yaoyorozu and a blasting Bakugou, the two now in the lead, Todoroki coming closely behind them, “Malaqua!”

Wine erupts from Matsuo-Sama’s cup, blasting every student nearby, allowing Izuku a precious second of respite as he runs his way toward the third and last obstacle in their race…

“THE MINEFIELD!” Present Mic’s booming voice yells from the announcers’ booth above, Izuku stopping at the mouth of the large, barren field filled with explosive mines in front of him, Yaoyorozu’s motorcycle left discarded nearby.

“Persona!” Izuku shouts once again, Matsuo-Sama getting replaced by Archangel, the flying persona already grabbing at him as he soars upwards, away from the explosions below.

“We need to get into that entrance to win, and I don’t know if we’re allowed to fly over the stadium walls!” Izuku yells to his persona, having to remain relatively close to the ground as he sees Bakugou take the lead by simply flying through the air with his explosions, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu lagging closely behind as they narrowly avoid each mine, “Crap, we’ll never get to it with this speed…”

“Alright, change of plans again! Archangel, drop me down!” Izuku yells, his persona not even hesitating as he does as he’s been told, dropping Izuku in the middle of the unexploded minefield, Todoroki and Bakugou gunning for the lead as they exit the minefield, Yaoyorozu following closely behind

 _“Something fast, something fats and nimble to avoid these mines…”_ he thinks, his six persona cards appearing in his hands as he attempts not to step around any mine, “Ok, let’s go for this one, Persona!”

Nata Taishi appears in a burst of blue flames, flaming wheels gently touching the ground below with feather-like weight, the new persona barely having the time to get a word in before Izuku already jumps into his arms, the persona instantly catching him bridal style with a startled yelp.

“No time to explain, we need to move now!” Izuku yells, indicating the three leads of the race still fighting over first place, “And try to avoid the-”

Izuku doesn’t even have the time to get a word in, that his persona is already speeding his way onward, uncaring of the wake of devastating explosions he leaves behind himself as his flaming wheels trigger each mine, the persona far too fast to even get caught in the radius of each mine, his fellow students getting caught in his wake.

“Oh G- God!” Izuku yells as he hands onto Nata Taishi’s head and body for dear life, his persona easily coming out of the mine field unscathed, easily outrunning Bakugou, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, the wind blast caused by his arrival almost blasting each of them away, “W- why the Heck are you so fast!

“Ah, this is but an ember of the true power of my Wind Fire Wheels!” Nata Taishi laughs arrogantly as he keeps on streaming onward, his voice loud enough Izuku can hear it above the roaring of the wind all around them, “We’re almost there Master, how about we raise the speed up a little?!”

Izuku can’t even yell before they erupt onward, leaving his opponents in the dust as he skyrockets into the large, dark tunnel leading to the race’s finishing line, the wind pressure flattening Izuku against his persona’s chest as the light at the end of the tunnel comes incredibly close to him.

With a sonic boom, Izuku and his Persona come out of the tunnel, getting the first place on the race, Izuku’s ears ringing all the while as his persona abruptly stops, the young man scrambling off of him as he barely registers Present Mic’s voice listing the other students getting in after him, nor the roaring of the crowds around him.

“Ah, not even the Dragon King could match our speed and power today!” Nata Taishi cheers, raising one fist into the air, jumping idly onto his wheels, “I’m sure they’ll now know not to mess with the Third Lotus Prince and his enlightened Master, no sir!”

“Ground.” Izuku mumbles out, hugging the hard soil beneath it as he remains, face down, laying onto it, completely ignoring his persona as he disappears back in a burst of blue flame, “Nice, stable, unmoving, blessed ground. I swear I’m never leaving you again.”

-

“WHAT A PHOTO FINISH WORTHY ENDING!” Present Mic blasts from his announcer booths, “Midoriya Izuku of class 1-A has managed to out-speed and outmanoeuvre his many, far better-looking opponents and score first place onto the Obstacle Course! What an incredible Quirk, allowing him to soar through the air while also outrunning his opponents on dry land, I’m sure the watchers at home want to know more about it, so, any insight Aizawa?”

Aizawa sighs, Present Mic almost jamming his microphone into his heavily bandaged mouth, beady eyes staring down at the slowly filling stadium.

“Midoriya’s quirk is called Persona,” He begins to drawl with a tired sigh, “It’s an Emitter Type Quirk, and it allows him to call out several… creatures, called Personas, to answer to his commands. He’s however only able to call each and every one of them out at a time, and they each have their their own strengths and weaknesses...”

“What a versatile and easily marketable Quirk!” Present Mic yells out, one arm sprawling over Aizawa’s shoulders as he keeps him in a one-armed hug, “I can already hear the members of UA’s Business Course already plotting the next toy-lines for each of his monsters, surely a way easier thing to sell than your student’s plain looks and frankly disastrous fashion sense! Now tell me, what sort of creatures can we expect from him today?”

“Don’t know, Don’t Care,” Aizawa says in a dry tone, “All I know is that he’s been making new ones in sight of the Sports Festival, and that he’s supposedly limited to a number of Six personas at a time, and we’ve only seen four of them today, so he might still be holding some cards close to his heart…”

* * *

“And now, the scorings for the first trial!” Midnight, the umpire, calls out, her hands pointing at the large screen behind her, where the various photos of each student participating in the race appeared, “Only the first forty-two students are eligible for moving to the next round! A round of applause for our victorious contestants, and some much-deserved boos for the losers who didn’t even make it this far!”

Several photos grey out and disappear, the various pictures rearranging themselves into a top 42 students in the race, the crowds going wild all around them.

Izuku gulps, having finally gotten back his bearings as he looks up at the screen, finding himself on the first place, followed closely behind by Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Bakugou, and then a certain Shiozaki from class 1-B.

Among all of his other friends, Izuku was surprised to see Iida only come at Seventh place, even despite his quirk being perfectly tailored for this sort of tests, followed by Tokoyami at eight, Uraraka at seventeen, Shinso at Twenty-six, as well as Hagakure and Aoyama, respectively on places thirty-nine and forty-one.

“We’ve managed to all get in…” Izuku breaths out with a relived sigh, his entire class having managed to pass the trial with little issue, “Thank god…”

“And now, for our next trial…” the same roulette from before appears on screen, rolling another series of names before landing squarely onto…

“The Cavalry Battle!”

* * *

Izuku has fifteen minutes to find one up to three fellow students to participate with him in the cavalry battle, and he is not having much luck on that front.

His headband being worthy ten million points is probably the main reason for that.

“Everyone is avoiding me like the plague…” Izuku mutters, a dejected expression on his face as everyone he has tried to strike up a conversation with has either rejected him or outright ignored him, the young man starting to get desperate at this point, “Crap, by this rate I’ll have to do this thing all al-”

“HERE YOU ARE, THE TEN MILLION POINTS GUY!” Izuku startles, jumping up into the air at the sudden cry coming from his direct left, finding himself now face to face with a pink haired, goggles wearing young woman, a large, deranged grin on her face, a large, metal backpack strapped on her back, alongside several high tech power armour pieces “YOU’RE SURE TO STAND OUT, PICK ME FOR YOUR TEAM!”

Izuku barely resists the urge to hug the girl and cry, loudly and messily, if only barely, his eyes however still tearing up at the prospect that, yes, someone is indeed willing to get on a team with him.

“I… I’m flattered b- but.… Who… Who are you?” Izuku stammers out, the energetic girl not losing her pep in the slightest as she removes her goggles, revealing a pair of cross-aired, lemon coloured eyes, her bright smile only widening.

“Oh, I’m Hatsume Mei from the Support Course of course, and if you need someone on your team, I’m the gal you want!” She chirps out, pointing her thumb at herself, “I’ve developed and perfected countless babies over the course of my time here, babies that will surely compliment you and your cavalry formation in ways you haven’t even dreamed of before, aiding you in your time of need, all the while easily earning me the money and attention of every single industry big shot currently attending this event!”

Izuku briefly wonders about Hatsume casual display of raw strength, given how she is seemingly able to carry the various exoskeleton pieces haphazardly strapped to her body, as well as the large metal cylinder strapped to her back AND an entire sack filled to the brim with support devices, right as she empties her sack into the ground, several support devices laid bare in front of him, Izuku eyes widening at the sheer quantity and apparent quality of each of them.

“As you can see, I’ve inspired myself to the many designs belonging to various other heroes out there!” She continues in her sales pitch, presenting each and every item on the ground with a flair of her hands, “This masks, for example, are designed and modelled after the Masked Phoenix Rangers Featherman R’s group, and much like their original counterpart, allow their wearer to-”

“To enhance their strength and speed enhancing Quirks without triggering their drawbacks!” Izuku concludes for her, eyes sparkling as he encounters a fellow nerd, “Oh, and that’s Air Jet’s backpack! That’s so faithful to the original too, you must be really good at this!”

“Ah, that I am!” Hatsume chirps out with a proud smile, “And that’s not counting some of the secret projects I’ve been taking part in my time here! Come on ten billion points boy, get me on your team, you need me!”

“Y- Yes, of course, you can join my team!” Izuku cries out, a small, hopeful smile on his face as he goes grabbing her hand with his and shaking it, “I’m sure with you and your amazing inventions here, we’ll be able to win this thing in no time!”

“Ah, as long as we get my babies to the spotlight, I’m fine with even getting last place really,” She dismissively says, looking around herself, “Still, this shouldn’t be a… two people show, is it just the two of us or…”

“Ho- Hold on, I’m working on it,” Izuku stammers out, looking around himself at the groups forming all around him, “Ah, there she is!”

Izuku rushes toward Uraraka, Hatsume in tow, a nervous smile on his face as he manages to get to her.

“U- Uraraka, I’ve finally found you!” Izuku cries out, earning a polite smile from Uraraka and a teasing giggle from a nearby Ashido “Do you want to join-?”

“I’m... I’m sorry Deku,” Uraraka interrupts him with an apologetic smile, one hand sheepishly scratching the back of her neck, “but I’m not teaming up with you today…”

“Oh.” Izuku breaths out with a loud gulp, hands dropping at his side and trembling, “I- I understand, it’s because of my ten million p- points, r- right, I… I do not f- fault you for-”

“Oh, no no, it’s… it’s not because of that at all!” Uraraka hastily rushes out, raising her hands up in the air, “You’re my friend Deku, and I would… I would gladly help you in this difficult time, but… but I can’t, because… because of what happened at the USJ…”

Izuku’s brows furrow at her words, barely registering Uraraka’s surreptitious glances darting between a confused Ashido and a completely uncaring about the conversation Hatsume, an awkward chuckle escaping Uraraka’s lips.

“I… You’ve helped me out a lot there, even given me… you know…” Uraraka says, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks, “P- part of your power. And that’s what it is really, **your** power. The one you’ve used, alone, to get to the first place of the obstacle race, the one you used to help me at the USJ, and I…”

“And I don’t want to lean in on you or your power,” Uraraka says, a determined look on her face, “I told you before, I’m going to reach up back to the first place I’ve earned at the Entrance Exam, and I’m going to do it without your help this time, so you better watch your back Deku, because I’m going to steal that ten million points headband for my team, just you wait!”

Izuku isn’t exactly sure if he should feel proud over his friend’s spirit and determination, or absolutely terrorized at the prospect of having lost one of the few people he was planning to partner up with, Uraraka leaving the now dejected young man to join back with Mina their own group.

“W- well, it’s… it’s not the end yet, I can still g- go up to Iida and…”

“Iida just joined Todoroki’s team…” a voice from Izuku’s direct right drawls out, the young man once again startling as he leaps up in the air, Shinso suddenly appearing at his side, “It seems everyone is turning his back on you today Midoriya, how will you ever-”

“Shinso!” Izuku yells, tears streaming out of his eyes like fountains as he sees his room neighbour and friend standing in front of him, his hands grabbing him at his shoulders and shaking him, “Thank god you’re here, please team up with me!”

“Uh?” Shinso says with a confused look on his face, “That was… easier than I expected, didn’t even have to use my Quirk on you to convince you…”

“Why would you even need to do that, your Quirk is amazing for these kind of things!” Izuku yells out, eyes sparkling, “With your help we can get any pursuer to instantly desist from their assaults, you’re going to win us this game, I’m sure of it!”

A slight blush appears on Shinso’s cheeks, the young man quickly averting his tired eyes from Izuku’s shining smile, “I’m… I’m glad you have so much faith in me Midoriya, especially since I’ll probably just end up disappointing you in the end…”

“Nonsense Shinso, no matter what you do I’m sure you’d never disappoint me…” Izuku says with a bright smile, Shinso wincing awkwardly at the sight, a small, tired chuckle.

“I wish I had the same faith in myself as much you have for me…” Shinso drawls out, dejectedly looking at the side, only for Izuku’s hands to go and grab at his, a small blush appearing on the green haired young man’s cheeks.

“Then I’ll guess I’ll just have to have enough faith in you for the both of us,” Izuku says, his smile turning bashful, right as he could feel Shinso’s own, aloof mask crack under Izuku’s sheer, raw desire to befriend the guy.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Time slows to a crawl, Shinso’s card erupting from Izuku’s chest and spinning right in front of his eyes, a bright light erupting from it, revealing its change from its previous rank of I to its new rank of II as its bright light stops.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring thou closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Magician Arcana.”**

The card slowly begins to sink back inside Izuku’s chest, the young man feeling once more the warmth that came from within it, as time slowly crawls back to its proper pace, under the last words coming from the echoing voice.

**“Thy affinity with the Magician Arcana has strengthened. Thou can summon and keep thy Persona further away from thou during fights.”**

“Hello new teammate friend, I’m Hatsume Mei, inventor extraordinaire and Future Genius, Millionaire, War Criminal Philanthropist!” Hatsume buts in with her own bright smile, breaking the moment as she shoulders her way past Izuku, his eyes widening as he ponders the possibilities of such a buff to his powers, right as Hatsume offers her own energetic hand to a still stunned Shinso, eagerly and wildly shaking his hand off “Hope you’ll help me reach the hearts and minds of the various stinking rich CEOs gathered all around here!”

Shinso smiles awkwardly at the young woman’s enthusiasm, trying to discretely dislodge his hand from hers, getting as much distance between them as he could, “Oh, you sure are… honest about your intentions at least…”

“Alright, with Hatsume’s… babies, and Shinso’s quirk we have enough versatility to come out of most encounters, while my personas can provide most of the fire power in case of attack…” Izuku mutters out, peering outward toward the few, still unpaired students, “Now all we need to get is someone who can provide some defence for our formation…”

A large shadow appears behind Izuku, towering over him and blotting out the sun, a cold, terrible chill of dread running down Izuku’s spine, mirrored by his two teammates.

“Hi.” One of Shoji’s mouths says in a mild, extremely soft spoken tone, this despite the appendage coming straight out from one of his many tentacles, uncomfortably close to Izuku’s face, “I couldn’t stop myself from overhearing you needed someone with a strong defence on your team, soooo… Can I join?”

* * *

“The fifteen minutes are almost over over ladies and gentlefolks, and with them, all the time our contestants had to prepare their strategies for the incoming cavalry battle, so you better get a move on with that planning!”

The crowds’ cheers at Present Mic’s words, the various teams setting up all around the stadium’s large field, each warily staring at one another on the field.

“We can already see some interesting formations in today’s Cavalry Battle, especially coming from our top 5 from the obstacle race, but will they be enough to overcome all odds and come out on top in this new trial! Let’s find out!”

“You… sure you can take on all of us at the same time Shoji?” Izuku asks his teammate, Izuku, Hatsume, Hatsume’s equipment and Shinso sitting inside the large cocoon he had formed with his hands all around his back, “We’re not weighting too much right?”

“You all weight like a couple wet grapes to me, there’s no need to worry for my wellbeing,” Shoji reassures him in a polite tone coming from one of his mouth, “I’ll give my all to protect you and our points, so you best think about taking other headbands with your Quirks...”

“D- don’t worry, I already have a strategy in mind for that…” Izuku stammers out, peering at the other teams all around him, already feeling their stares boring onto his back, even if inside the large cocoon on Shoji’s back.

“It’s… a bit cramped in here…” Shinso mumbles out in discomfort, the tallest of the three people currently on top of Shoji, his head almost touching the top of the cocoon all the while having to sit incredibly close to Izuku, the green haired young man currently sandwiched in between his friend and the walking advertisement in human form that is Hatsume Mei, Izuku far too focused on the task at hand to even notice the awkward position they were all in.

“Oh oh, it seems the owner of the ten million headband is trying to play as defensively as possible for this match,” Present Mic booms out from his booth, “Not as spectacular as his recent showing, but clearly the right choice if he wants to keep that ten million points headband on for the rest of the match!”

“On the other hand of the spectrum, we have the fourth placed’s own team, one Bakugou Katsuki’s” Present Mic booms out, Izuku attention getting toward Bakugou’s own team, the hot headed young man sitting on top of his formation composed by Kirishima, Sero and Sato, “All brawn, all raw power, and all offense to better snatch up any opponent’s headbands for themselves!”

“Both strategies are however destined to fail on the long run,” Aizawa voice drawls from the booth, Izuku flinching slightly at his criticism, right as an outraged cry comes directly from Bakugou’s direction, “Todoroki’s team, based around both defence and offense on equal measure, is the most likely to both succeed in snatching up enemy headbands and defend their own, making them among the strongest contenders for the number one spot in this trial…”

Izuku’s eyes turn toward Todoroki’s own team, the young man standing above his own formation, Iida already standing in the front, with Kaminari and Tokoyami standing at his flanks.

“Still, I can already tell which team are some of the folks at home clearly rooting for today!” Present Mic cuts back in, “Who if not the charming, beautiful, extremely cute team Asui! Truly, the team of strong, independent women who do not need no man that many a hero out there has always dreamed to save at least once!”

Izuku cringes slightly at Present Mic’s presentation, his eyes scanning over to Tsuyu, finding her idly perched over her own teammates, seemingly ignoring Present Mic’s colour commentary, a blushing Yaoyorozu guarding her left, a delighted Ashido, basking in the glory of the moment guarding her left, and an absolutely livid Uraraka standing right in the middle, her glare directed at the announcer’s booth, the sheer murder intent transmitted from her making Izuku gulp loudly in fright.

“Oi, what is all this 1-A favouritism here!” An unfamiliar voice screams from somewhere among the various teams, so loud Izuku is sure even Present Mic has heard him from his booth, “Team Tetsutetsu is currently the second for most points here, and we also have an all-female team composed by far stronger and far more beautiful amazons than those plain looking thots from class 1-A! I demand respect and commentary for our far superior class I say!”

Izuku cringes in pity at the unknown young man’s outbursts, pity blossoming within him as three out of four members of Uraraka’s team instantly direct their own murderous glares toward him, right as a small chuckle comes out from his direct right.

“Wow, I can’t believe class 1-B also has a Bakugou…” Shinso says, a bit more at ease than he was before, “Then again, theirs does sound a bit more bearable than ours, do you think they’ll let us trade them at some point?”

Izuku can’t help but chuckle awkwardly at his friend’s jest, right as a horn blares loudly in the large stadium, signalling the end of the brief respite Izuku had just been given...

“The fifteen minutes are over, we begin now… THE CAVALRY BATTLE!”

And everyone descends on Izuku’s team like starving vultures on a fresh carcass.

“GET HIS ASS!” a member of class 1-B, Izuku idly remembering him as the same Tetsutetsu currently placed as the highest scored member among all teams after his, declares, his team rushing toward Izuku’s cocoon, Shoji quickly going on all fours and scrambling away from the incoming enemies, faster than anyone could predict, only to slowly begin sinking on the ground below, courtesy of one of Tetsetetsu’s teammates.

“Sorry Midoriya, but I’m here to win this thing!” Hagakure yells out on top of her own team, sitting almost all the way on top of Koda’s large body, Jiro placed on their right, as they attempt to flank Izuku, Jiro’s jacks probing at Shoji’s armoured arms, barely managing to scratch his thick skin.

“Midoriya, I’d appreciate some help here.” One of shoji mouths grits out, as thorny vines start knocking down on Izuku’s cocoon alongside Jiro’s jacks.

“G- got it!” Izuku yells out, yellow card already in hand, throwing it outside the narrow crack in Shoji’s carapace, “Nata Taishi, get us out of here, Persona!”

The fire wheeled persona erupts mid-air, somersaulting off his fire wheels onto Shoji’s back, balancing on his hands.

“Dekunda!” Nata Taishi bellows, the ground beneath Shoji turning suddenly solid as they are catapulted off of it, the young man wasting no time as he goes on all fours again, bravely fleeing from their two opponents before they can even react about it.

“Uh, interesting Quirk you got there, mind if I run some tests on it?” Hatsume instantly says, eyes sparkling in a new light as she stares down at him with renewed interest.

“M- maybe later, we need to think about the-” Izuku can’t even end his sentence that tape snags at Shoji’s legs, making him trip down on the ground, the cocoon thankfully untouched.

“QUIT HIDING YOU SHITTY DEKU!” Bakugou screams, already blasting his way from his formation toward Izuku’s, fist up in the air.

“S- sonic punch!” Izuku calls out, Nata Taishi jumping off Shoji and somersaulting once again into the air, streaming right toward Bakugou, his own, sparkless fist raised in the air.

The two fists collide midway, Bakugou getting the worst of it as he is catapulted backward by the strength of the sonic fist, Sero quickly snatching him back onto their formation with his tape.

“Ah, you are no match for the power of the Marshal of the Central Air-” The Persona can’t even end in his boasting that he’s already tackled to the ground by Dark Shadow, a cry escaping both his and Izuku’s lips as his head is smashed against the concrete below.

“P- persona!” Izuku yells out, Nata Taishi erupting into a torrent of blue flames, Dark Shadow scrambling away from it with his own cry, Replaced by Quixote and his horse.

“Ok, no, sorry, but I really have to do this now!” Hatsume excitedly cries out, a sketchbook and pencil out as she started writing something on it, “I’ve just have gotten the perfect Idea for a new baby and I cannot stop thinking about it till I sketch it out, I’ll be done in a couple minutes, hold the fort till I’m back!”

“SERIOUSLY?” Izuku cries out, exasperated, turning toward his other companion, currently leisurely resigning inside his spot on the cocoon.

“What? It’s not like I can do anything from here or anything…” Shinso drawls out with a yawn, “It’s you and Shoji till they crack our egg open Midoriya, sorry about that.”

“It seems someone brought an actual horse to today’s cavalry battle…” Todoroki cold voice points out, his own team staring down Midoriya’s and Bakugou’s in a makeshift Mexican standoff.

“OI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU HALF N’ HALF BITCH! THIS IS BETWEEN ME AND THAT USELESS NERD!” Bakugou yells out

“You knew it would have come down to this Midoriya,” Todoroki says, not even deigning Bakugou of a glance, “I’m coming from that headband, and there is nothing you’ll be able to do to stop me...”

“STOP IGNORING ME!” Bakugou yells, completely unaware of the class 1-B team as they easily pass him, one hand already taking hold of his 665 points’ headband.

“Tsk Tsk Tsk, typical Class 1-A, all bark, no bite,” The heckling young man from the start chides Bakugou, his team already leisurely moving away from the stunned team, “Try to be a bit less focused on your petty inter-class rivalries next time, and you will not lose your headbandS so easily…”

“Oh crap, he got us!” Sero yells out, Bakugou’s already foul mood worsening by the minute.

“And with a shocking turn of events, Team Monoma has managed to score the second place!”

“Second place not so bad, plenty better than staying at 0 points like some loser I know…” The young man, Monoma, displays his shocking lack of self-preservation skills as he keeps on mocking Bakugou.

“Kirishima, fuck the Nerd and the hot n’ cold bastard, we’re going to kill that bitch be the LAST THING WE DO!” Bakugou yells, hitting on Karishma’s thick head as he and his team leave Todoroki and Izuku to their own confrontation.

“With that out of the way, Tokoyami, if you please…” Todoroki calls out with a sigh, his eyes narrowing at Izuku’s cocoon from across the field.

“Got it…” Tokoyami grunts out, Dark Shadow enlarging itself as it rushes toward Izuku’s persona, tackling it with a dull thud, a soft sting pervading Izuku at the sudden impact.

“I’ve figured you out Midoriya,” Todoroki says in a dry tone, “Without your Personas, you’re just a short guy of above average physique, I’ll just need to keep your pets occupied with Tokoyami’s dark shadow to properly deal with you.”

“C- crap, Rakukaja!” Izuku calls out, Quixote barely having the time to buff Shoji’s defence before he is tackled into the ground by Dark Shadow.

Shoving him to the side, Dark Shadow manages to topple Quixote out from his horse, allowing for Todoroki’s team to properly rush at their opponents with nothing in the way anymore.

“Shoji, keep on Todoroki’s left side, he can’t freeze us as long as he doesn’t touch us with his right arm…” Izuku frantically calls out, the larger man doing as he is told, already going on all fours and hightailing out of there.

“Pointless.” Todoroki calls out, his own team already making chase, Iida’s superior speed soon catching up to Shoji’s…

Only for both teams to slowly begin sinking once again into the softened ground beneath them.

“THERE YOU ARE AGAIN, CLASS 1-A!” the leader of Team Tetsutetsu yells out, his teeth gritted in anger and frustration, other, headband-less members of class 1-B coming straight behind him “I SHALL RECLAIM MY CLASSMATES’ HONOUR BY GETTING ONE OF YOUR LOUSY HEADBANDS! HAVE AT YOU!”

“Well, we sure are in a pickle now,” Kaminari chuckles awkwardly down Todoroki’s side, “I can’t electrify this whole zone by myself, I’d hit us too with friendly fire, what do we do now dude?”

“See, this is the reason why I wanted Yaoyorozu on our team…” Todoroki grumbles, “I should have made sure she was free to provide us insultation from your Quirk and grant me a easy way to use my Quirk in battle before picking you for our left flank…”

“Damn man, thanks for the vote of confidence…” Kaminari chuckles out, staring around himself with a confused frown, “Where is she anyway?”

“Far closer than any of you realize, Kero…” A voice ribbits out as Team Asui appears, the frog girl perched on top of her cavalry team, tongue already out toward Tetsutetsu’s headband and snatching it for herself, the young woman sporting several headbands on her forehead and neck.

“What the- How the hell did you get that many headbands?!” Tetsutestu cries out in shock, his eyes widening as his hands come to his brow, finding no headbands on it.

“What, like it’s hard, kero…” Tsuyu replies, a pair of dark sunglasses on her head, mirrored by the three members of her team, “I don’t know you Midoriya, but I’d suggest you cover your eyes, kero.”

Izuku’s eyes widen, barely registering as Present Mic announces the start of the last five-minute mark, as Yaoyorozu throws out a cluster of something out from her, straight in the middle of the softening sands Izuku’s team is currently sinking in.

“Say cheese!” Ashido cheers out, the flash bombs exploding and blinding everyone around them, Dark Shadow screeching and retreating away from Quixote, the Persona stumbling back up on his feet before disappearing into a burst of blue flame, leaving _something_ behind.

Shoji cries out, as blinded as the others, the occupants of his cocoon thankfully protected by the flashbang’s devastating light, only for something to slide over toward them, tagging the young man’s large body, making it suddenly weightless, as they slide away from the blinded teams, easily dragging Shoji with them all the way to the other end of the map.

“Sorry Deku, but as I’ve told you, I’m taking that headband for myself today!” Uraraka cries out, ending her quirk as Shoji crashes down in front of her, right as Tsuyu’s tongue wraps around a large mallet, courtesy of Yaoyorozu, and begins hammering down on Shoji’s carapace.

“There, all done!” Hatsume cries out with a triumphant smirk, her brand new baby already designed on her sketchbook, “Uh, is something happening?”

“We’re almost about to lose, that’s what’s happening!” Izuku cries out, eyes frantically looking around his persona cards as Shoji grunts out in pain beneath him, “Hatsume, weren’t your babies supposed to attract everyone’s attention today? DO SOMETHING!”

“Oh, ok then.” Hatsume chirps out with a wide smile, slapping onto Shoji’s back, “Oi… you, tentacle guy, on my signal, open your arms, I’m about to go all out.”

“Are you… Are you sure about that…?” Shoji’s mouth asks in a worried tone, another, dulled cry of pain escaping his mouth, “You don’t have to worry about me Midoriya, I… I’m sure I can take it.”

Another pained grunt escapes him, Izuku’s face twisting into a grimace at his classmates’ ongoing assault, a plan already forming in his mind.

“ONE MINUTE REMAINING!” Present Mic bellows, only causing Tsuyu’s blows to come down harder and faster against Shoji’s iron defence, the larger man’s many mouths gritting their teeth in pain.

“I know Shoji, but do as Hatsume says, trust me on it, I… I think I know what I’m doing…” Izuku sighs right before turning toward the pink haired girl at his side, “Please don’t make me regret this…”

“Oh, don’t worry Ten Million Points Boy, I’ve got this!” Hatsume chirps out as she slaps once more at Shoji’s back, the young man ending his carapace and exposing Izuku, Shinso and Hatsume to a sudden mallet-on-tongue attack.

“Say hello to my little babies!” Hatsume cries out, a crazed grin appearing on her face as she presses the large, red button currently sitting on the left side of her large backpack, the top of it bursting open as several small balls burst out of it, only to enlarge themselves before turning into…

“You were the one who designed those robots?!” Izuku cries out as the Faux Ball Shadows attack at Tsuyu’s team, their own mechanical tongues wrestling the mallet away from Tsuyu’s, some of them already aiming at some of her headbands, only to be narrowly avoided as Mina’s acid easily allows her team to slip and slide around the arena.

“Oh yeah, Power Loader even promised to pay me a royalty if I let him use them in the Festival!” Hatsume says in the tone only a proud mother could have, “It’ll all easily come to cover up the costs for me accidentally unionizing the Villain Bots last week!”

“You did wha-” Izuku barely has time to say anything before something drops on his back, large, frog like hands grip at his head, slamming it against Shoji’s back.

“Thank you for the landing pads, kero,” Tsuyu says, now squashing Midoriya down with her weight, hands already slipping Izuku’s headband from him, right as Shoji’s hands converge back onto her, the frog girl already leaping back to her team with her prize.

“My babies!” Hatsume cries out as Ashido melts out the few Faux Shadow still surrounding her with her acid, easily shaking them off.

“Eh, melt just as easily as any other villain bot,” Ashido says with a cheeky grin, before preparing yet another path for her team to follow with her acid, the lot of them easily slipping and sliding away from them.

“TEN SECONDS REMAINING!” Present Mic booms out, only to solicit more cries of despair from a good chunk of the participants of the cavalry battle.

“Crap, we need to get back to them…” one of Shoji’s mouths sputters out, already scrambling back toward team Asui’s rapidly retreating backs.

“No time for that, with Ashido’s and Yaoyorozu’s Quirks combined they’re already kilometres away from us, we’ll never catch back in time…” Shinso points out with a dry tone, Hatsume and Shoji crying out in outrage at his comment, “Welp, that didn’t go as planned, better luck next time.”

“What do you mean… Of course it didn’t go as planned, we are at zero points now, and my babies are all ruined!” Hatsume cries out in despair, “I’m never going to get a contract with a big tech company now!”

“How can you be so calm about this Shinso?” Shoji asks in a suspicious tone, “You do realize this might as well be a blow to all of our careers as a hero, right? How come are you the only one not…?”

Shoji stops himself mid-sentence, noticing just then the unthinkable.

Midoriya Izuku, worrywart, easily scared, constantly nervous, perpetually terrorized about what might await him in his future, THAT Midoriya Izuku…

Wasn’t, in fact, NOT freaking out about any of this, a small, pleased smile on his face as he looked at Uraraka team go…

As his Persona climbs up from his shoulder, clutching Todoroki’s main headband in its hairy paws, the piece of cloth sporting its 630 points score.

“TIME’S UP!” Present Mic’s voice bellows all around the stadium, a loud horn blaring the end of the cavalry battle, as every team either rejoice or despairs at the results of their battle, descending down

“Took you long enough to notice our new passenger,” Shinso says with a dry tone, the small, fuzzy monster currently sitting on his lap, the young man idly scratching his head with a tired yawn, dropping Izuku’s persona on top of Shoji’s head before climbing down his large body, “Welp, my work here is done now, I’m taking a nap, wake me up for the when they announce the next step of the festival…”

“But, you… you didn’t actually do anything…” one of Shoji’s mouth weakly points out at Shinso’s retreating back.

“You sure about that, Shoji?” Shinso whistles without even looking behind, one thumb indicating at Izuku’s head, where two more headbands was currently haphazardly strapped on, displaying a 135 and a 685 score each, “I don’t need my Quirk to be sneaky about things, especially when a girl wearing several headbands around her neck and head comes dropping by right beside me…”

Shoji produces a large quantity of mouths just to collectively sigh at his teammate antics, right before lowering himself on the ground and allowing his other team members to easily come down from him.

“What is up with that Je-” Hatsume begins, her eyes instantly zeroing on the fuzzy, eyeless monster climbing on Izuku’s back, sparkling, “Awwww, but who is this cute little baby here, Aw, I could eat him all up for how cute he is, come on, come to Mama Hatsume!”

Izuku persona leaps off his shoulder with a childish yippie as he launches himself from his shoulder toward the waiting young woman, Hatsume instantly cradling it in her arms and scratching at its belly.

“I was planning to use this as my trump card…” Izuku says with a bashful grin, a faint blush appearing on his face, “Its… His name is Obariyon, and… believe it or not he’s currently my strongest Persona. He presented himself as a… Japanese Piggyback Ride Demon or something, so when Uraraka picked us up, I quickly changed personas to him, ordering him to sneak his way onto Todoroki’s back, unguarded, and easily get to his headband as insurance in case Uraraka’s team were to actually take our own headband. It seems it all worked out fine in the end…”

“Sure did, mister!” Obariyon says in a high-pitched voice, only causing Hatsume to coo in response “Should have seen the face of the fiery one when I jumped off his back with his headbands, almost scorched me alive, silly human must have mistaken me from my brother, thinking anything can burn me!”

“Todoroki used his fire on you?” Izuku asks, his eyebrow meeting his hairline, “Weird, I thought he never used his left side in battle…”

“Must have really ticked him off with that move then…” another of Shoji’s mouths says, a sigh escaping it soon after, “You sure got us out of this pickle Midoriya and I’m… I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much help, all I did was running away from people and almost get ourselves captured, while all three of you did your hardest to win us the match-”

“What… what are you talking about Shoji?” Izuku asks in a confused tone, “You’ve been the backbone of this team, you did all the work and saved us multiple times simply by how strong and resilient you were, tanking multiple hits and sacrificing yourself just to protect us! Heck, without you, we’d probably have lost my Headband way sooner, you were the real MVP of this Cavalry Battle Shoji, never forget that!”

Shoji’s real eyes widen at Midoriya’s words, the larger man seemingly stunned as he stares down at his teammate and leader.

“T- Thank you Midoriya…” one of Shoji’s mouth says after a long pause, “I… I will not let this praise go to waste, so watch out in the next part of the Sports Festival, because we’re going to be rival then!”

“I can’t wait!” Izuku says with a grin, extending one hand toward Shoji, the larger man awkwardly using one of his own, many hands to shake is, a sheepish chuckle erupting from both Izuku’s one mouth and Shoji’s Six, as a new bond of friendship is formed.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Time slows to a crawl, Izuku’s hand still frozen, gripping one of Shoji’s many tentacles, as a shining, spinning card appears in between them.

**“Thou have forged a new bond… It shall bring thou closer to thy dreams…”**

The card stops in its blinding light, its motion halting, revealing its starting rank of I as well the large, bold XII written right below it, the card picturing a wooden marionette, hanged right on a branch of a large three via a short rope, bags filled with coins hanging from it like ripe fruits, the puppet’s blank stare directed right at the “viewer,” a red fox and a white cat resting idly among the roots of the large tree depicted on the card, staring hungrily at the tree above, right as a large Squirrel with a blue streak on his tail is eating a large nut on top of the puppet’s branch without a care in the world.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Hanged Man Arcana”**

Izuku blinks, shuddering slightly as the card sinks into him, the warm feeling of a new bond washing over him as time crawls back into its proper pace, Shoji breaking his handshake with Izuku as it happened.

“Still, I’m kind of bummed that I couldn’t do anything to at least attempt to grab us some headbands,” Shoji says with a sigh, “Even Hatsume managed to do something with those… balls thingies, even as fruitless as that turned out to be…”

“Oh yeah, Hatsume, your babies!” Izuku cries out, turning toward Hatsume, seemingly not caring in the slightest about the recent fate of her beloved creations, “I’m sorry they ended up all broken up by Ashido’s acid today, did they… did they cost you a lot or…”

“Ah, don’t worry, I’ve got several more prototypes back in my lab, I’ve just brought them here for testing purposes,” Hatsume says in a dismissive tone, still petting at the Persona in her arms, the large, fuzzy creature purring all the while, “Prototypes I’ll have to insulate from Acid damage of course, but I can work on that, especially if I manage to get some funding from some big multinational company after I show them some REAL beauties during the third part of the Sports Festival! After all, everyone knows a good salesperson always leaves their best articles for last!”

“Still, I’m curious, where did you get the idea for those… Flying balls thingies?” Izuku asks in a confused, slightly worried tone, an awkward chuckle escaping his mouth, “Did you… did you see the recordings of the Entrance Exam and got inspiration from the… the monsters there?”

“The Entrance What?” Hatsume answers, furrowing her brows in confusion, “Nah, just two weeks ago I woke up from this really messed up dream and though, “hey Mei, you know what would really be cool? Giant, flying ball robots that lick people, that would be hilarious to see,” and the next thing I know, here I am making these new babies!”

Izuku’s frown only deepens at his teammate’s words, even as a slight blush appearing on his cheeks as he can feel all the caresses and scratches she’s currently administrating to Obariyon through their link, the young man diverting his gaze from her.

“There you are Deku!” Uraraka and her team arrive, a bright smile on her face, even as Mina instantly ditches her team to go at Hatsume’s side, cooing over Izuku’s persona herself, Izuku’s blush worsening at the added stimulation.

“Ah, I knew even stealing your ten million points headband you’d still be up in the race with us,” Uraraka says, pointing at the three headbands currently wrapped around Izuku’s head, “How do you think did the Cavalry Battle go for the rest of the class by the way?”

“Ladies and Gentlefolks, we finally return with the results of the Cavalry Battle! Remember, only the Top Four Scored teams will be allowed to move to the next round!”

Everyone instantly stiffens at the announcement, everyone’s eyes moving upward to the large screen displaying the current results of their last trial.

“On first place, we have Team Asui, with ten million, one thousand four hundred and eighty points, snatching the number one spot headband right at the last minute!”

Uraraka and Mina cheer at the news, bright smiles on their faces as they jump high into the air, their fists raised, Tsuyu following suit if with a less expressive cry of victory, and a far higher jump, Yaoyorozu smiling gently at her teammates’ antics.

“Second Place, with one thousand, four hundred and fifty points, is Team Midoriya, still managing to qualify despite the loss of their number one headband!”

Izuku breaths out a sigh of relief at the news, his knees buckling and making him fall to the ground, tears pooling at the side of his eyes at the news, barely registering as Uraraka and everyone else there congratulate him on his win.

“Third place, goes to Team Bakugou with Seven Hundred and thirty points, managing to steal two out of three headbands out of Team Monoma, thanks to their leader quick thinking and indomitable will!”

Bakugou’s frustrated cry of anger can be heard around the stadium, Izuku chuckling awkwardly at the sound.

“And last but certainly not the least, at fourth place we have Team Monoma from Class 1-B, managing to guard their stolen six hundred and sixty five headbands to the bitter hand, and out-speed the strong if bulky formation of Team Bakugou, managing to get qualified for the next round!”

Izuku’s eyes widen at the announcement of the fourth placed, a similar look of shock mirrored on Uraraka and Yaoyorozu’s faces.

“Man, that’s why you should vary your team more…” Ashido says with a judging hum, “Had Bakugou opted for something a bit more on the fast side rather than on just raw power, maybe he would have caught back onto that… that jerk and he would have gotten all his headbands at this point…”

“Yeah, but he didn’t, which means that those weirdos from Class 1-B managed to get into the third and last match of the sport festival rather than…” Tsuyu trails off, her own, large eyes widening a bit more as she looks up at the large screen above, Mina following her gaze with a confused look only as realization also strikes her, her jaw hanging open as she realizes the impossible had just happened.

Right up there on fifth place sporting a meagre score of only eighty points…

Was Team Todoroki.

Team Todoroki, who hadn’t managed to pass onto the third stage of the UA Sports Festival.

And that's the instant one of the VIP Booths on top of the large arena goes up in flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for a recap:
> 
> Fool Arcana: Rank IV
> 
> Jester Arcana: Rank II
> 
> Magician Arcana: Rank II
> 
> High Priestess Arcana: Rank I
> 
> Empress Arcana: Rank II
> 
> Lovers Arcana: Rank II
> 
> Chariot Arcana: Rank I
> 
> Justice Arcana: Rank II
> 
> Hanged Man Arcana: Rank I
> 
> Star Arcana: Rank I
> 
> Sun Arcana: Rank I
> 
> Aeon Arcana: Rank MAX
> 
> Cornucopia Arcana: Rank I
> 
> ????????? Arcana: BROKEN
> 
> -
> 
> Izuku's Personas:
> 
> Quixote, Level 13, Fool Arcana, Strong to Physical, Weak to Wind, OC (Bash, Rebellion, Skewer, Sukukaja, Rakukaja, Tarunda, Skull Cracker)
> 
> Nata Taishi, Level 7, Chariot Arcana, Strong to Fire, Weak to Wind, P4 (Bash, Rakunda, Dekunda, Sonic Punch, Agi, Dia, Patra)
> 
> Jack Frost, Level 12, Magician Arcana, Blocks Ice, Weak to Fire, P5 (Bufu, Ice Break, Baisudi, Mabufu, Marin Karin, Dia, Tarukaja)
> 
> Archangel, Level 12, Justice Arcana, Resists Slash and Light, Weak to Wind and Darkness, P3 (Hama, Sukukaja, Cleave, Holy Arrow, Patra, Zio, Garu, Rebellion)
> 
> Matsuo-Sama, Level 12, Cornucopia Arcana (Cup), Weak to Fire, Drains Water, P2 (Malaqua)
> 
> Obariyon, Level 17, Fool Arcana, Resists Physical and Fire, P4, (Sonic Punch, Tarukaja, Dekaja, Silence Boost, Muzzle Shot, Resist Physical, Holly Arrow, Rakunda)
> 
> -
> 
> Social Skills
> 
> KNOWLEDGE: 5
> 
> KINDNESS: 5
> 
> COURAGE: 2
> 
> DILIGENCE: 4
> 
> CHARM: 1
> 
> -
> 
> (How was that for a plot twist?)


	14. Moon Arcana: Rank I

“We’ll proceed to the Afternoon Portion after a one-hour lunch break, please try not to get in the way of the Firefighter Bots dousing VIP Booth #2's blazing inferno, thank you.”

People begin to get up from their seats, leaving for one of the many food stands all around and inside large UA stadium, chatting amiably about the recent events.

“Wow guys, Class 1-A really knows their stuff,” A pro hero comments in an impressed tone, eyes scanning over the now regrouping member of each class.

“Man, who cares about Class 1-A, did you see those chicks? Cute AND Strong, everything a true heroine should be about…” Another Pro hero comments in a leering tone, “If they keep going at it in the next section, I’m going to request at least one of them to intern at our agency later, think of the surge in popularity we’re gona get dude.”

“I know right? That Midoriya guy wasn’t so bad either,” Another pro heroine comments, gossips more like, yellow eyes gleaming, “He might not look like much, but he sure managed to carry his team with that sneaky steal with one of his monsters. Wonder what he’s going to pull next…”

“Man, but did you see Endeavour’s kid?” another hero points out then, “What a complete disappointment, didn’t even manage to qualify for the fourth place, and to think he managed to dominate for most of the Obstacle Race…”

“Ah, gets to show the apple doesn’t fall off the tree,” Another pro hero says in a mocking tone, a cruel laugh escaping his mouth, “He must be just like his dear old dad, really powerful when alone, yet awful when working together with other people. It might be a Hero eat Hero world out there, but even we know the importance of proper team communication…”

The chatter grows, hanging around the stadium, the audience commenting and gossiping and scheming more and more about the students they’d just witnessed participating in the Cavalry Battle, their lives, their skills, their dreams, their failures, their victories…

Their Futures.

* * *

“I wanted to congratulate you all for besting us during the cavalry battle.”

Tokoyami’s voice comes almost as a surprise to Izuku, he, Uraraka and their teams beginning to move toward the Stadium cafeteria for their lunch break, Iida and an out of it Kaminari standing right behind him.

Izuku almost has to make a double take at their frizzled, fuzzed state, his eyes softening in worry.

“T- Tokoyami, Iida, what happened to you!” Izuku calls out, shocked, his friends’ hair and feathers standing to their ends, smocking slightly, their gym uniforms scorched.

“We needed to lose our pursuers from Class 1-B,” Tokoyami begins in an almost resigned tone, “My Dark Shadow was greatly diminished after Yaoyorozu’s attack, and Todoroki couldn’t freeze them all unless we toppled our whole formation to let him touch the ground, which meant Iida had to burst us out of from the softening ground using a powerful if destructive super move of his, all the while Kaminari had to attempt a suicide attack on the various class 1-B teams, which unfortunately rendered all three of our “horses” useless for the rest of the battle, while also feeling part of the burn of Kaminari’s attack, even despite the sacrifice of my own Dark Shadow...”

“And yet it wasn’t enough,” Iida grits out, a pained expression on his face, his glasses shining, “Midoriya, Uraraka, it seems that despite everything, I couldn’t measure up to either of you in the end, how pitiful, my brother must be so disappointed in me!”

“Yaaaayyyy,” Kaminari simply says, a dumb smile fixed on his face as he raises his thumbs up.

“T- That’s not true Iida!” Uraraka yells out, taking a step forward, “You were great, you all were, you all just got unlucky when it came to the last paces of the battle, you shouldn’t beat yourself around for it, and I’m sure your brother thinks the same too!”

“Uraraka is right Iida, I’m sure that, if he’s as half as a great brother as you say he is, your brother is still going to be proud of you!” Izuku says, a slight sparkle in his eyes, “Heck, your brother is THE Ingenium, he’s an incredibly popular hero just for the amount of Sidekicks he employs and helps out, I’m sure, wherever he is, he will not think any less of you!”

“They are right, Iida,” Tokoyami points out with a sigh, “Remember, it was your quick thinking and skills that allowed us to free ourselves from class 1-B’s attack, had it not been for you, we’d probably be still halfway into the stadium floor, our headbands stolen earlier.”

“We lost, yes, but we should not feel any shame from this.” Tokoyami continues, a chick-shaped Dark Shadow snuggling in the collar of his shirt, “Our loss will only be a valuable experience for us for the trials to come, a stepping stone in our journey to heroism, allowing us to recognize our weaknesses and overcome them, so to later succeed. This is just a natural part of our journey as a hero.”

“Damn Tokoyami, you can be really wise when you don’t try too hard to be an edgelord, Kero,” Tsuyu points out, one finger to her chin, breaking the moment as Tokoyami sputters at her words, startled.

“Tokoyami, Uraraka, M- Midoriya…” Iida stammers out, one hand raising his glasses as the other scrunches his eyes, “Your… Your words have given me much to think about, I swear I will better myself, so to never fall to the same mistakes I did during this Sports Festival, both during the Cavalry Battle and the Obstacle Race, so to become the hero you all think I am, the hero I know my brother thinks I am!”

“That’s the spirit Iida!” Uraraka calls out in a jovial tone, fist raised in the air, bright smile on her face “Now come on guys, it’s lunch and we’re surrounded by friends, let’s go refill our energies for the incoming trial!”

Cheers erupt from Izuku’s friend group, a small smile appearing on his bonds with each and every one of them grow deeper, somehow, as they all went on their way toward the students exclusive Stadium Cafeteria.

“Midoriya…”

Izuku stops mid steps, Tokoyami’s hand on his shoulder, a pensive look on his face, their friends stopping a short distance away.

“Do you mind talking with me for a bit,” Todoroki says in a serious tone, “I… I understand if you want to go have lunch first, but… it’s something important.”

Izuku furrows his brows in worry, right before nodding, he and Tokoyami beginning to move back toward the Arena.

“You guys can go forward, me and Tokoyami will be back in a minute,” Izuku says, his friends simply shrugging at his words and waving at their retreating backs, a worried look appearing on Uraraka’s face.

“So, what’s so important that can’t wait till Lunch, and you couldn’t tell me about with our friends present?” Izuku asks, eyeing Tokoyami’s pensive face.

“It’s about Todoroki,” Tokoyami says in a curt tone, “After your… Demon took his Headband, well, let’s just say he didn’t seem to take it well, especially after it was revealed we had just lost the Cavalry Race.”

“C- Crap, where is he now?” Izuku asks, hands trembling at his side as his worry worsens, a dark pit forming at the bottom of his stomach.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Tokoyami sighs, stopping in the middle of the corridor, by now enough away from their friends for his tastes, “Kaminari was too out of it to notice, and Iida was too much involved in his own family drama, but I’ve seen the… the look on his face, when it was revealed he didn’t make the cut, and now… I don’t know where he is, and… I’m worried Midoriya.”

Izuku gulps at Tokoyami’s words, the raven headed young man sheepishly scratching the back of his neck with one hand.

“I know he probably wants to be alone right now…” Tokoyami says, “And I know you might think you’re probably the last person he’d want to talk to, but… I still remember the way you and Uraraka so desperately went after… after Uraraka when she was kidnapped by one of your demons during the USJ… the way Kirishima told us about how… fearless you were, when you threw yourself against that monster, not to destroy it, but to save All Might, so I know… I know if anyone can help Todoroki today, that can be you…”

“Why… why are you telling me this?” Izuku asks, confused, Tokoyami flinching at his words.

“Because even despite my pretty speech about losing, I still feel responsible for what happened today,” Tokoyami says with a sigh, “Had my Quirk been… better at handling light, maybe we wouldn’t have lost our Headband to you, maybe I would have been the one managing to sneakily steal your own headband from you, but I wasn’t… and we lost because of it…”

“Tokoyami, you… you cannot know that,” Izuku says, eyes narrowing at his friends words, “It’s like you said to Iida, you also played a big part into protecting your Team during the final assault… Heck, you sacrificed your Quirk so your team could survive Kaminari’s suicide attack, that takes a dedication and a spirit only a true hero would have!”

Tokoyami’s eyes widen at Izuku’s words, a small blush appearing on his feathered cheeks, somehow, right as a chuckle comes out of his shirt collar.

“Man, this brat is good…” Dark Shadow’s weak, high pitched voice chirps out, a weak cough following soon after.

“Ah, it seems I was right in entrusting you with our team captain’s protection,” Tokoyami says with his own small chuckle, completely ignoring his Quirk, “Well then, I’ll try to keep your words at heart then Midoriya, and I hope… I hope you’ll help him out today…”

“Of course I will, both for you and for him,” Izuku says, his eyes narrowing in determination, “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Friends uh…” Tokoyami says in an intrigued tone, leaning slightly toward Midoriya “Would you really be willing to become the friend of such a dastardly creature such as myself and my Dark Shadow?”

“Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing I’ve befriended really,” Izuku says with a small smirk, Obariyon appearing in a burst of blue flames on his back, the fuzzy demon waving at Tokoyami and Dark Shadow.

“Friends it is then,” Tokoyami says, chuckling to himself all the while, “Or maybe Comrades in Arms? We did fight against monsters together after all, that sounds far more fitting after all…”

“Whatever you want to call It Tokoyami…” Izuku says with a small smile, the warmth of a new bond washing over him as time slows down to a crawl.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

A card appears in between them, shining brightly as it spun around, only to stop right in front of Izuku, to reveal the image within, as well as its starting Rank of I, as well as the bold XVIII written beneath picture, refiguring one, large, full moon in a starless night sky, a blue crawfish and a green rabbit looking up from the river shores below at it, the crayfish on the right facing left, the rabbit on the left facing right, the moon perfectly in the middle of the card.

**“Thou have forged a new bond… It shall bring thou closer to thy dreams…”**

The card starts to slowly sink within Izuku, the warm feeling of camaraderie from before, if still budding, if still a spark of what it could be, amplifying within him, filling him with determination as time slowly crawls back to its proper pace, as the voice gives out his last words.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Moon Arcana…”**

“Alright then, we don’t have a moment to lose, Tokoyami…” Izuku says in a determined tone, “We need to find Todoroki, so please, tell me where did you saw him last, and where do you think he could have gone.”

“Yes!” Tokoyami says, his own determined look appearing on his face, the two friends beginning their search for their classmate in need.

“Don’t worry Tokoyami, I’m sure we’ll be able to find Todoroki in no time if we apply ourselves to it!”

* * *

It’s almost an hour later, and the gang did not find Todoroki.

“Well, this was… fruitless…” Tokoyami says in a slightly embarrassed tone, he and Izuku having finally gotten to the stadium cafeteria, all their friends having already finished their lunch and gone, “I’m… I’m sorry Midoriya, for making you waste such valuable time you could have spent preparing for-”

“Don’t… don’t worry Tokoyami,” Izuku says, a lingering feeling of dread pooling at the pit of his stomach even as he attempts a small chuckle, “It was… it was a wild goose chase anyway, and I just… I just thought I’ve heard something inside of there, I’m sorry those pros ended up scolding you too…”

Izuku sighs, looking around the large room filled with students, hoping to find Todoroki in there, only to come out short,

“We… we’ll need to warn some of the teachers,” Izuku continues, “At least to ask if he didn’t just… leave the stadium for the day and gotten back to the dorms or something… Maybe we’re just worrying over nothing…”

“Yeah… maybe…” Tokoyami concedes, sounding as unsure as Izuku feels, a deep sigh escaping his beak, “I’ll… I’ll go and tell Mr. Aizawa, I’ve made you waste enough time on this, you still need to prepare for the next phase of the Festival…”

“Wait, no, I can go with you, I still have-” Izuku begins, only for a loud horn to beginning blaring in the stadium, signalling the near start of the afternoon phase of the Sports Festival, making the young man flinch, “Time…”

“I don’t think you do,” Tokoyami concedes in a chiding tone, “Go, your future is at stake Midoriya, I will do my own part in the search of Todoroki, so rest easy…”

“Al… Alright Tokoyami, I’m counting on you, and please, tell me as soon as you discover anything” Izuku says with a serious tone, “I don’t like what is… happening right now, makes me feel like something dreadful is about to happen…”

“That makes three of us,” Tokoyami concedes, absent-mindedly stroking Dark Shadow’s head, still nestled around his collar, a cooing sound coming out of it.

“See you later Midoriya, and hopefully with some good news this time.”

* * *

“Where have you been, Deku?!” Uraraka asks in a worried tone, as Izuku finally meets back up with his class, “You’ve missed lunch and almost come in late… and where’s Tokoyami?”

“T- tell you about it later…” Izuku mutters in a nervous tone, the worry on Uraraka’s face only worsening right as Midnight struts back on the stage, a satisfied look on her lips, ready to announce the third stage of the Sports Festival.

“Ladies and Gentlefolks, we are gathered here today to announce the third and last secret phase of this year’s sports festival, a formal tournament between each member of the four winning teams!”

“Oh gee, who would have thought,” Shinso drawls out with a yawn from Izuku’s left, “Honestly, the last section of this festival has been some sort of one on one tournament every year since it was implemented, it be a secret if it wasn’t something like that at this point.”

“Each matchup will be decided by drawing lots,” Midnight continues, a large ballot box in her hands, “Afterwards, we’ll proceed to a series of festivities among the various losers of the previous two entrance of the sport festival, so to allow our sixteen finalists to properly prepare themselves for their oncoming opponents.”

“So, beginning from the first match…”

* * *

“A missing student so close at the third phase of the festival…” Aizawa drawls out, he and Present Mic talking with a worried Tokoyami right outside their Commentator booth, “And Todoroki to booth, I this can only mean trouble, we need to suspend the festival and begin a search of…”

“Hold right there Aizawa we might be overreacting,” Present Mic points out with a nervous grin, “The boy just arrived, what, seventeenth at the Sports Festival? And from the absolute fit Endeavour pulled after that in his booth I don’t think he must be feeling too good about himself right now, maybe he’d just gotten back to his dorms, or maybe he just wants to be left alone, he’s a teenager, they are genetically predisposed to angst after all…”

“Yes, or, one or more deranged criminals have managed to infiltrate this university, AGAIN, and have attempted to kidnap one of our strongest students for God know what nefarious purpose,” Aizawa points out in a dry tone, Tokoyami gulping slightly at his words, his eyes fixed on the two professors.

“Even more reason to not cause a panic then,” Present Mic points out in a conciliatory tone, “Listen, I’ll keep on commenting like nothing happened, you go and warn the security details around the campus to do the job we pay them for and start searching for him, best case scenario he’s just hiding it out somewhere, if anything truly serious happens we’re in a stadium filled to the brim with heroes, and

“Mmmmm, I can’t believe I’m about to say this but there is some… logic behind your words, Mic…” Aizawa points out in a dry tone, completely ignoring his colleague as he preens under the unexpected praise, “Tokoyami, how many more people did you discuss this with today?”

“J- Just Midoriya, Mr. Aizawa,” Tokoyami says, the name causing a tired sigh to escape Aizawa’s mouth, “We’ve been trying to search for him for the better part of the last hour, but unfortunately with no luck on our part…”

“Of course he did…” Aizawa drawls out, another, slightly resigned sigh escaping his mouth, “That kid has been in the thick of every single major incident surrounding this university ever since he applied for the heroics course, of course he had to be part of this too now…”

“You think this might be… part of what we discussed with Nedzu at the last staff meeting?” Present Mic side-whispers to, eyeing Tokoyami warily, the raven headed young man’s brows furrowing in the process, “You know, about the kid’s quirk and stuff...”

“If this is about the… demons Midoriya seem to call out via his Quirk, I resent that accusation levelled toward my comrade in arms,” Tokoyami says, a dark glare levelled at Present Mic, “

“Tokoyami is right Mic, Midoriya’s brand of… disasters usually involve flashier, mindless monsters trashing about the place,” Aizawa points out with a drawl, “This is too subdued, too methodical to be those creatures doing, if its someone’s doing at all, as you said, so I don’t think we should start making wild accusation toward anyone.”

“Ok ok, fine jeez, it’s not the kid’s fault,” Present Mic says, raising his hands in the air in surrender right as he chuckles awkwardly under the two men collective glare, “This time...”

“In fact, I’ll tell you one more Hizashi…” Aizawa continues, seemingly on a roll as he menacingly steps toward his colleague, effect kind of ruined by his status as a bandaged man wearing casts wobbling all the way as he moved, “While he might have gotten himself involved with this mess rather than think about the rest of this blasted Festival, I’m sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that Midoriya is not to blame for Todoroki’s disappearance this time around.”

“May I lose my Quirk if I’m wrong.”

* * *

“And here are the Match Ups!”

The large screen behind Midnight lights up once again, each casually generated Matchup appearing soon after in the first brackets of the Tournament, Izuku and everyone else’s eyes peering at what was written on it.

Izuku’s eyes widen at some of the match ups.

He’s set to participate in the very first match, against his own classmate Ashido Mina, his eyes scanning around his class only to find her looking with an equally stunned look at the large board in front of them. Izuku didn’t know how her Quirk, Acid, was going to work with his personas, or what kind of element it would actually fall under, but he assumed, given her own propension for quick, fast physical attacks using her Quirk more as a speed boost rather than as a weapon against biological opponents.

He knew that would have given him an advantage, especially thanks to Quixote’s and Obariyon’s own resistances if not outright nullifications against physical damage, but he also knew that he shouldn’t underestimate his opponent just yet…

The following match was then going to be between Sero and Yaoyorozu, thus implying whoever was going to win that bracket, would have then potentially have to fight against Izuku, if he managed to best Ashido that is. Probably Yaoyorozu really, especially given her own role as the current favourite in the Sports Festival after Todoroki’s defeat, something most of his other classmates had probably realized at that point, her opponent among them if Sero’s own nervous look was any indication.

Next, there was the fight between Shinso and one of the four students from class 1-B, a certain Kuroiro Shihai, Izuku not really having the frame of reference to properly know who that might be among them, and also lacked the proper information to properly, but sure that his classmate would have probably be able to pull this off, given his opponent unfamiliarity with his Quirk.

Next, there was going to be a fight between another member of class 1-B, Kaibara Sen, fighting against Izuku's old teammate during the Cavalry Battle, Hatsume Mei. Izuku… didn’t really know what to think of that, both given his own inexperience with Class 1-Bs quirks, as well as not knowing the true extent of Hatsume’s “babies.”

Next up, there was going to be a match between Sato and Shoji, former partners during All Might’s battle training, suddenly turned rivals. Izuku didn’t know on who to really place his bets on.

After that, there was going to be a fight between Tsuyu and another member of class 1-B, a certain Tsuburaba Kosei, yet another wildcard Izuku didn’t know nearly enough about.

Following that match, there was going to be one between Kirishima and Monoma, the eponymous leader of team Monoma, followed shortly after by a fight between Bakugou and…

“Who the fuck is Uraraka Ochako?”

Izuku turns to his direct left, Bakugou looking up at the large screen in front of him with an unimpressed look on his face, right as a startled Uraraka gives him an incredulous look at his words.

“Heya Midori,” Ashido chirps out, a sly grin on her face as she comes to his right, slapping her hand against his back, a bright, confident smile on her face, “So we’re going to fight against each other first uh? Man, that’s a bummer, but I’m sure to give my all against you, so you better not hold anything back!”

A nervous smile appears on Izuku’s mouth at his opponent words, “S- sure t- thing Ashido, I’ll give you m- my one hundred percent…”

“Great and try not to feel too bad when I wipe the floor with you and your pets!” Ashido chirps out, another nervous chuckle escaping Izuku as he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.

“I… I could s- say the same t- thing to you…” Izuku tries to say in a confident tone, an attempt unfortunately ruined by his stuttering as well as his slightly trembling form.

“Now, we will have another one-hour long break, featuring several recreational games among the various losers of the previous two phases of the Sports Festival,” Midnight continues in a cheerful tone, “The various contestants will be provided with a personal room, and will be barred from the recreational activities, thus to allow them to properly prepare themselves for the oncoming tournament.”

“So, break a leg everybody, and let the recreational games begin!”

* * *

“Status report.”

“There has been a break out in the barrier,” A hero on the front row seats whispers, leering yellow eyes glued to the cheerleader performance in the stadium, “I could feel it, if just for a second, but something has managed to break in.”

“It’s not a coincidence then, there is a Leak in here…” another heroine points out in a bored tone, munching her large burger on her bench right outside the stadium, “Man, and I that I wanted to have some fun today…”

“We must all reign in on our desires and focus on the task at hand…” Another hero points out, barely audible as he smiles warmly at one of the members of class 1-D requesting his goggles for their scavenger hunt, “And yes, I know how much of an Oxymoron that must sound, but you’ve heard the bosses, we are this close to the perfect society we’ve always dreamed off, we cannot make any mistakes today…”

“Oh, one of the brats from the sports festival disappeared,” Another heroine buts in, eying the burnt remains of VIP Booth 2 warily, “I’m currently the only member of the Families on the security detail, and I don’t know how… relevant this might be to our case, but I’m currently forced to investigate this, so I don’t know much I’ll be able to help you out on this-”

“Hold on, a student disappeared and you’re only telling us about this now?” The informal leader of the gathering hisses out, a shiver running down everyone’s spines at her words, “Sister, please, tell me you have a reasonable explanation for such a… blatant violation of conduct? I specifically asked you all to report on any sort of incidents happening during the Festival.”

“Listen here, missy, I had to shake off dumb and dumber off my tail, didn’t have the time to contact any of you with them constantly breathing down my neck,” The heroine grumbles out in a disgusted tone, “God, I can still smell that awful stink of nicotine, why the hell was I the one assigned to this role?!”

“Benefits of rank sweetie, you were after all the only one among us currently on the bottom of the hero popularity charts,” Another heroine points out, a posh giggle escaping her lips, “Still, you shouldn’t be so hard on her, Sister dearest, this might as well be a coincidence after all…”

“Coincidence have stopped existing the second that blasted baby started glowing in China,” Their informal leader hisses out, a tired sigh escaping her lips, “Who’s the missing kid? A General Studies student who run off to their mama for having lost against the big bad heroic course students?”

“Oh, ah, funny thing is… He’s supposed to be the Number 2 Hero’s Son …” The heroine chuckles out in an awkward tone, a couple gasps escaping her comrades’ lips, “I’m trying to come in contact the kid’s father to see if he knows where he is, but he seems to have vanished too after trashing his VIP booth. Damn, maybe they just got back home together after his loss for some depression ice cream or something…”

“Endeavour? Getting some ice cream for one of his sons after he failed?” One of the heroes says with a bitter laugh, “Yeah, right, and I’m the reincarnation of Sumaru Kiyotada. Like… have you met the guy?”

“No? He’s the number two freaking hero, of course I haven’t met the guy!” The heroine yells out, almost startling a couple of nearby audience members, “Hell, if you know him so well, why don’t you tell me where I can find him or his brat uh, maybe that way I can end this farce sooner and return enjoying this fucking festival!”

“Ladies, Gentlemen, please we are losing track of our mission here,” a new hero buts in with an exasperated tone, one hand coming to his nose and pinching it, “Todoroki’s Scion’s disappearance aside, we still have a potential Leak among the student body. This might relate to one another, or it might be just another red herring, but what we need right now, is a proper and clear examination of the facts at hand.”

“Fact number one: We know now for a fact that a _Troublemaker_ is among the students, courtesy of the commentary of that… annoying cockatoo they call a presenter revealing the name and effect of his… disgusting Quirk,” The hero continues, his colleagues falling into a hush, “Fact number two, that same _Troublemaker_ also happens to be one of the very same students present during Incident USJ from the last weeks, as well as during the Entrance Exam Outbreak, and is not only in the same class as the missing kid, but also contributed to his loss during the cavalry battle.”

“So, wait… you’re saying a- a _Troublemaker_ is our leak? A Joker… who can control Personas?” A heroine buts in in a disgusted tone, “Ugh, that’s gross, I think I’m going to be sick, that… that kinky bastard…”

“Wouldn’t be the first time it happened,” another heroine points out in a pensive tone, “Still, wouldn’t the leaders know if they had a Troublemakers among our fold in the first place? Seems almost too convenient if you ask me…”

“Yes, but then, if he wasn’t, what else could it be then? We need to apply Occam’s razor on this situation” The de facto leader of their little group says in a pensive tone, “You are not wrong, brother, it would be far too… coincidental, for a Leak and a Troublemaker to appear in the same class, which can mean only one think…”

“Midoriya Izuku is the weak link in between our chains that will bind this world into perfection,” The leader intones, her eyes sharpening as the commentator announces for the start of the first round, “We knew it was a possibility after last years’ outbreak, we knew we might have missed a couple of them after the UA Entrance Exam, but we’ve found him now, and he’s not going to get away from us anymore…”

“We need to get him back into the fold before he causes any more undue damage, and we need to do it fast,” She continues, plans, logistics, possibilities already forming in her head, “That means we’ll have to each send an internship form to him after the Festival, and try to… discourage rival, unaffiliated agencies from doing the same, that way we’ll easily skew him into joining up with one of our programs, and by the time he realizes he’s inside one of our facilities, it will already be too late.”

“And what if he goes for another agency then?” Another hero points out, “Or realizes something is fishy and tries to make a run for it before we can get our claws on him?”

“Oh, don’t worry dear brother, he might be a Troublemaker, he might be a Joker just like us… but he’s still a teenager, one who is trying to make a living as a hero, and one who is even more susceptible to his twisted desires right now, his desire to become a hero…” The heroine points out, her smile sharp, “And In a world so… saturated with them, do you really think he’d reject the opportunity to intern at some of the most prestigious hero agency in the country? And for what, a hunch something might be wrong? A better offer? And from whom, pray tell?”

“No, the kid will get back into the fold, he will get back at his work on the project, and he will return being the dutiful little oiled gear that makes this crazy, crazy world work and march toward its inevitable, utopic paradise…” the woman concludes, her tone final, her glare directed at the young man currently walking on the large ring, courtesy of the Pro Hero Cementoss.

“Whatever he likes it or not.”

* * *

“Young Todoroki is missing?” A skeletal All Might asks, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline, “One of my students? Why wasn’t I notified sooner, heck, does Endeavour even know? I haven’t seen him all day.”

“I… I don’t know!” Izuku stammers out, so close to the entrance of the stadium proper, so close to the beginning of his first match, nerves getting the best of him, “T- Tokoyami noticed it after the end of the Cavalry Battle, he just up and left without saying a word, and we got both worried, especially since we couldn’t find him all lunch break. Tokoyami has warned some of the other teachers, but I think they are trying not to cause a panic, especially…”

“Especially so close to the USJ,” All Might mutters grimly, “This is supposed to be UA big comeback, a statement to the world that we are not going to have our lives dictated around by some villains, of course no one would want for this to get to the press…”

“W- what should we do then?” Izuku asks, his worry having only worsened in the one hour of preparation he had gotten, “I… I know this is important for m- my future and a- all, but… but I can d- drop this right n- now and begin searching for-”

“No, you still need to participate in this,” All Might sharply says, startling Izuku further “We might be blowing this way out of proportion, and would you really think that Todoroki would want one of the people who managed to defeat him at the Sports Festival to just… give up? Because you were worried for him? That must be one of the most nonsensical things I’ve ever heard.”

“I… I know, but…” Izuku continues, only to be cut short by All Might.

“Don’t worry Young Midoriya,” All Might with a confident smirk, the effect unfortunately ruined by the sudden spurt of blood from his mouth, “I will be the one to search for Young Todoroki. He’s still my student after all, and I shall not rest easy until everyone in this class is accounted for…”

“All Might…” Izuku mutters, eyes softening slightly, worry easing from his shoulders, if just a little.

“It’s just… I’m kind of sad I’ll not be able to see your first matches then…” All Might says with a worried frown, “But if… if it makes you rest easier…”

“Y- yes.” Izuku says with a determined frown, “I… I also wanted you to be there… there when I showed the world what I was really made of, but I’d rather have you out there, looking out for my… For Todoroki instead…”

“Mmmmm, OK then, just promise me you’ll not be slacking off now, and you will give this match and all the ones afterward your very best, even if you’re going against your very friends and classmates!” All Might says with an authoritative tone, “And do not worry Young Midoriya, I’m sure by the time of your next match, young Todoroki will be up there on the audience seats with the rest of your class cheering for you all, I promise you that!”

“Now, move along Young Midoriya, and always remember to clench your butt cheeks in your moments of need,” All Might concludes, a skeletal hand going to Izuku’s shoulder.

“For you have a tournament to win!”

* * *

“Mmmmm, this is happening… earlier than I expected…”

There is a paralyzed fake hero in the dark alley, yellow eyes trembling in barely disguised terror, the wounds on his back deep enough to bleed, but shallow enough to not kill, not yet, staining the ground with his tainted blood, right as the inevitable unfolds before his eyes.

“Hero Killer: Stain…” the other hero says, his tone cold, right as he places himself between hunter and prey in a practiced fighting stance, “I knew my informants were right when they told me you had been spotted prowling in this town! I will not allow you to take any more lives tonight!”

“Yet another fake idol, come to perish at the altar of my crusade?” The other man, the Hero Killer, says with a careful hum, tilting his head to the side as he stares down the obstacle in front of him, “Mmmmm, no, I don’t think so… I can see a glimmer of purity in your eyes… I can see the spark of something good behind them, not the blazing abyss of All Might’s, but still there, so different… And yet so familiar…”

“ _Oh,_ ” the Hero Killer breaths out, his eyes widening in recognition “Why are you here, Turbo Hero: Ingenium? He is not worthy of your life, you could so easily get away from here, and I wouldn’t even have the time to come at you, not without losing my prey… and yet…”

“Ah, and what kind of hero I’d be, if I’d let you get away from hurting another innocent?” the hero, Ingenium, spits out, grounding himself further in his stance, unbreakable wall between Stain and his prey, “You must think very little of us pro heroes if you think any of us would let a villain do as he pleased, just for their own personal safety!”

“Mmmmm, spoken like a true hero, so ready to give away his life for those in need…” Stain says, his smile widening, sharp teeth showing, “And yet, the man behind you is far from innocent, yet the system he perpetuates, the mask he wears, are far from… spotless, far from as picture perfect as you might believe. That’s the problem with… his kind, of those who only see this sacred role as a mean to an end, a mean for fame, glory, money… means to unleash their anger, their hatred onto something, to use their Quirks without any repercussion from the so called law… They disgust me.”

“And yet you think yourself better then them? Despite all the people you maimed and killed?” Ingenium points out, eying warily the Villain in front of him from behind his helmet, “I’m sure you must see the contradiction in your words.”

“Oh, but I’ve never said I was better than any of them…” Stain replies, grin still present, “I am not a hero, I am not even a vigilante, I’m just a… seeker of the truth, who has seen this wretched world for what it really is, and decided to do something about it, rather than simply wallow in my own filth like those… those fakers I hunt, a… necessary evil if you will, here to purge the world from the plague that has affected it, purge it of those… monsters, scheming in the shadows, wearing their faces as masks, corrupting everyone around them… I will be the butcher, culling the herd before the infection can spread, with only my resolve and my blades at my side…”

“Oh, you’re just a maniac then, why am I not surprised” Ingenium says, scowl hidden behind his helmet, “Well, your killing spree ends today Stain, right here, right now, with me!”

“Think and say what you want, Ingenium, but I’m afraid that’s not going to change the true state of things, nor what is about to happen next…” Stain says, his grin turning into a scowl as he crouches down, blade at the ready, “My crusade will only stop when I’ve ridden the world from the unworthy leeches that have infested it, or when I’ll be put down only by another Seeker of the Truth, only by someone whose resolve, whose desire for a better world matches mine, only by the true hero, All Might!”

A tense silence follows, hero and villain waiting the other to make their next move, broken only by the whimpering of the downed hero behind Ingenium, as well as the soft whisper of the wind.

“I might abhor the idea of hurting a true innocent, but I will not hesitate from putting you… out of commission, if that’s the only thing standing between me and my prey,” Stain grits out, fists tightening around his hilt, “So, please, stand aside, and let me do my work. I’m sure you have someone to return to, I wouldn’t want to rob them of their hero…”

“And yet I wouldn’t be able to call myself their hero anymore if I didn’t stop you when I had the chance,” Ingenium points out as he grits his teeth.

“Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you then…” Stain concludes with the finality of a nailed coffin, crouching lower, slowly, only to spring up forward, blade in hand, fast, merciless, and yet moving almost in slow motion for the armoured speedster, his Quirk activating as he surges forward, fist raised, crashing straight against Stain’s noseless face, a sonic boom erupting from the contact, walls cracking all around them, the ground itself turning into a crater as debris and dust fill the air…

The downed hero can’t quite see, his eyes wide as he tries to see the outcome of the fight, tries to peer through the haze, the blotchy figures hidden within, the dust surrounding the two titans, but the spark of hope ignites, if very briefly inside his heart…

Only to be instantly snuffed, as a flying dagger shoots through the air, directly at his left eye, ending his life on the spot.

“You lasted longer than I expected, Pro Hero Ingenium,” Stain says, sounding almost impressed as he sheathes his blade to his side, the broken body of the pro hero fallen to the ground, trapped inside his armour, “Unfortunately, it seemed your… resolve wasn’t quite up to par with mine.”

“W- what…” Ingenium tries to say, blood erupting from his mouth, staining his helmet, the bitter taste of iron on his tongue, “How…”

Stain doesn’t even respond, patting down Ingenium shattered body a she finds his phone, splattered in the hero’s blood, already opening it up as he types down a message to the local police force.

“You will live, but do not mistake this as mercy on my part, Ingenium,” Stain spits out as he keeps on typing, “You will survive this, your body shattered, your spirit broken, as a grim reminder of what happens when those… those fake, cursed heroes think they can pin their own duty to someone else, someone better than them…”

“W- what… w- what are y- you even… t- talking a- about…”

“They are getting… bolder, spreading… rumours about my presence here… In hopes someone else takes me down before… before I get to them…” Stain mutters, completely ignoring him even as his elongated tongue licks at the hero’s blood on the phone, freezing him in place, stopping him from speaking further, glaring down at the broken screen as he types, “Fakers, corrupt heroes, monsters… they are all the same, here to poison this wretched society further… maybe this way, they’ll start to take me seriously… They’ll start to send me some real targets for me to slaughter, other preys who fashion themselves hunters, now that they know that I wouldn’t step down from shattering the dreams of a true hero…”

“I can hardly wait.”

* * *

As the Sports Festival rages above, in the bowels of the UA Sports Festival Stadium, a Shadow burns, growing brighter and larger, fuelled by the spark of their own inadequacy, their own envy, their own failures, like the embers of a long forgotten furnace, bursting to life to forge the demise of those who had dared oppose them, defeat them when they should have shined brightest, where they would have showed to _him,_ proved to _him_ their power, their conviction, their _dreams_ …

The shadow trashes, hidden, secluded in its hiding spot, ready to burst out at the opportune time, to strike down, to immolate the one who dared stand behind them and their twisted dreams of revenge, the one most deserving of his burning hatred, his blazing rage…

Midoriya Izuku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter, to sort things up before the tournament proper.
> 
> Online Lessons for my University have started back
> 
> BTW, It also happens to be my Birthday today. I can't believe I was born one day after our lord and saviour Nanako Dojima, yet here I am.
> 
> Must be destiny.


	15. High Priestess Arcana: Rank II; Fortune Arcana: Rank I; Story Event: Tournament Eighth Finals

“Ladies and Gentlefolks, the moment everyone has been waiting for, the first match… of the UA First Years’ sports festival!”

The cheering of the crowds is deafening, nerves getting the best of Izuku as he stiffly makes his way toward the large stone ring in the middle of the Arena, a nervous smile on his face.

“In this corner, first place in the obstacle race, someone who has managed to overcome every obstacle with the use of his Summoning Quirk, Class 1-A… Midoriya Izuku!”

The cheers get a bit louder at that, Izuku flinching at the sound even as a sheepish chuckle escapes his lips.

“And in the other corner, the mistress of acid, the amazon of speed, one of the four heroines who helped her team score first place during the Cavalry Battle by slipping and sliding at super sonic speeds through the arena, Ashido Mina!”

The crowd explodes into cheers at that, the pink skinned girl waving widely at them, her smile large and full of mirth, as if she didn’t have a worry in the world.

“Oh oh oh! and it seem the crowd already has a favourite today!” Present Mic booming voice echoes along the stadium, Izuku doing wonders for Izuku already abysmally low confidence “Well then contestants, the rules are simple! Knock your opponent out, make them give up, or push them out of bonds, and you’ll get the win in this match! Other than that, as long as neither of you are intending to kill the other, all sorts of tactics are allowed, even the most debauched and villainous ones! Don’t hold anything back students, we want to see BLOOD TODAY!”

The crowd seem to only go wilder at that, Izuku gulping at the sheer bloodlust surrounding him, trembling slightly.

“Come on Midori, let’s give them a match they’ll never forget!” Ashido chirps out, face soon turning into a confident frown as she readies herself, her confidence somehow enough to break him out of his reprieve.

“Y- yes,” Izuku says, gathering what little courage he had and readying himself, “And may the b- best hero win.”

“AND BEGIN!”

“And that will be me!” Ashido yells out, acid erupting from her feet as she slides toward him at speeds he wasn’t expecting from her.

“Crap, Per-” Izuku yells out, right as Ashido’s left hook comes for his abdomen, the young man having to hastily dodge out of her way.

Using her forward momentum, Mina turns from her charge, leaning onto the ring’s floor, one hand to the ground as her acid erupts form it, kick raised toward Izuku’s face, the young man having barely the time to brace himself as it hits him square in the jaw, knocking him down on his ass.

“Ow!” Izuku curses, eyes widening as Ashido hops onto him, the young man barely having the time to roll away from his spot before getting his head squashed by her, the young man hastily crawling back from her as he gets back on his feet.

“Ah, nice dodge there Midori,” Ashido comments as she somersaults away from him, nimble body back into a fighting stance, a trail of acid left in her wake, “But not good enough. It’s like Todoroki says, as long as I don’t allow you to call out one of your little friends, I’ll just have to deal with you alone!”

She doesn’t even give him the time to say anything back before she is once again streaming toward him, wet acid coating the ground in her wake as she attempts another left hook. Midoriya expects it this time, blocking the blow with his forearms rather than dodging, only for the young woman to grab at his shoulders and climbing Izuku’s relatively small frame, somersaulting into the air as she uses his shoulders as launching pads, returning to slide around the ring without a care in the world.

“Surfs up!” Ashido yells, narrowly turning back as she propels herself toward Midoriya’s now exposed back, the young man hastily dodging to the side, barely avoiding her next hit, the young woman turning once more toward him, ready for another strike.

“Persona!” Izuku manages to hastily call out, Quixote appearing right in between them, lance ready to strike, only for Mina’s eyes to widen as she tries to hastily change course, acid erupting from her hands and feet as she dodges the impromptu Bash, coating the armoured knight and its horse.

Izuku hisses in pain at the sensation, a sentiment seemingly shared by his persona as his already tarnished armour rusts further under the acid’s assault, Ashido’s eyes widening at the sight.

“Oh wait, shit, does that hurt you too?!” She hastily yells out, gracefully landing back on her feet, “Crap, I thought that thing was resistant to damage, that’s what his card said, wouldn’t have used my acid on it if I knew-”

“Don’t worry about me,” Izuku grits out, the cheers of the crowds all around them getting louder, a small smirk appearing on his lips, “I can do just fine by myself, _Sukukaja, Rakukaja, Tarunda_!”

“What’s that, a Skyrim shout or something?” Ashido asks, brows furrowed in confusion, only for a series of bright lights startle her, coming from both her body and his, Izuku taking advantage of her brief moment of distraction.

“Now, _Skull Cracker_!” Izuku yells, Quixote galloping forward, lance raised.

Ashido seemingly panics at the sight, acid already bursting her away from the charging knight, only to sharply swerve at the last second backward, gliding backwards beneath the Horse’s legs, the persona stumbling, toppling as viscous, slippery liquid spreads under its hooves, Izuku startling in surprise as she heads straight for him, fist raised.

Izuku instinctually moves his head to the left, Ashido’s fist missing right before he’s forced to jump over the acid propelled low sweep at his leg, right as a second punch strikes him right in the stomach.

“Ow!”

It’s Ashido who cries out in pain, even as Izuku hastily makes a grab at her, one hand snatching her free wrist as the other takes hold of her forearm.

“That felt like hitting a brick wall,” Ashido complains, barely concerned about her current situation, “What, did you spontaneously develop Kirishima’s quirk all of a sudden, Midori, what gives?”

“It’s more l- like you are hitting like a wet noodle right now…” Izuku says, his own leg sweeping hers, Ashido falling down face first against the ring with a scream, right as Midoriya drops on her, hands already grabbing at her wrists and holding her behind her back, pinning her beneath him.

“I’ve weakened your strength, while also reinforcing my speed and resistance to blows, there is no way y- you’re getting out of this,” He says, his breathing haggard, even as a mix of cheers and boos start erupting all around the arena, his hyperfocused brain barely noticing neither them nor Present Mic’s commentary as he keeps restraining his opponent’s weak attempts at getting out of her hold, “G- give up r- right now, you’re d- defeated…”

“Oh yeah, and what if I start melting you with my Quirk right about now?” Ashido chirps out in a cheeky tone, wriggling her fingers against his chest all the while, his face getting redder, “You might have heightened resistance, but do you really want to try your luck on this?”

“Ah, I… I m- might have t- thought that at f- first…” Izuku stammers out, his face incandescently red, even as he tightens his hold on her wrist, “B- but after how you r- reacted to using your Quirk on Quixote b- by mistake? I know you’d n- never w- willingly hurt another living b- being with it… S- so I… I call your bluff!”

“Oh bummer, saw straight through me…” Ashido says with a defeated sigh, looking up from her position on the ground toward their umpire, “Fine, I quit, I can’t get out of this, he got me right where he wanted me…”

“Which is to say, pinned helplessly right beneath him?” Midnight points out with a smarmy grin, Izuku squeaking at the insinuation as his victory is announced, his brain tuning back to the crowd’s... animated screaming.

“LUCKY BASTARD!” “HE’S LEWDING THAT POOR GIRL! LEWDING I SAY!” “ENEMY OF WOMANKIND!” “WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE CASTRATION!”

If Izuku wasn’t blushing before he sure is blushing now, scrambling several feet away from Ashido, a small blush appearing upon her own, pink coloured cheeks as she sits back on the ground, stretching her arms out from their previous, awkward position.

Someone is already starting to throw assorted trash from the front rows, ranging from half eaten snacks and empty coke cans to literal tomatoes, their aim and strength fortunately not enough to even reach the ring.

“Man, those people sure are intense…” Ashido points out with a sheepish chuckle, doing nothing to either quell the crowd’s by then almost murderous chants, not helped in the slightest by Present Mic booing him on from the commenter booth, “Still, I can’t really blame them for it… I mean, from how it must have seemed up there, you might as well have started literally humping against my A-”

“Can the lot of you please SHUT UP!” Aizawa voice booms across the stadium, the crowds’ bloodlust quieting under his commanding tone, “And some of you are supposed to be pro heroes? Preposterous! The victor is Midoriya Izuku’s, get over it, he used everything he had in his arsenal to overcome his opponent, and it was all within the confines of the regulations of this tournament, so stop being so damn noisy and let’s move on with this blasted thing!”

The crowds quiet for another instant, only for their murderous ire to return, stronger than ever, this time directed at the Commenter’s booth, a small sigh of relief escaping Izuku’s mouth as all eyes shift away from him, the young man standing back up from the ground, before coming to his opponent and offering his own hand to hoist her up.

“Eh, you win some you lose some…” Ashido says with a resigned sigh, a small smile appearing on her face as she easily accepts the offered hand, getting back on her feet “Still, great battle Midori, it was lots of fun, we should do this again some time!”

“S- sure, you w- were pretty g- great t- too Ashido…” Izuku says as he blushes, the young woman’s smile turning bright, “I… I particularly liked t- the way you u- use your Quirk… You… You c- clearly d- don’t want to hurt p- people with it, s- so the n- next best thing is u- using it n- not only for m- mobility, b- but also to disrupt the e- enemy m- movement… You must have an a- amazing control over its f- fluidity and v- viscosity!”

“Ah shucks Midori, you really know how to get to a girl’s heart huh?” Ashido says with a teasing grin, wriggling her eyebrows all the while, “Complimenting me over how good I was at handling my fluids uh, men usually try to invite me for dinner first, you know?”

Izuku startles, hastily trying to excuse himself as his face turns beat red, only causing Ashido to laugh uproariously at the sight.

“Oh man, I’m just messing with you,” Ashido manages to say in between snorts, “God, you sure are fun to tease, I’m sure we’re going to become the best of friends soon!”

Izuku stops in his rambling, something within him stirring at her words, Ashido’s bright smile almost blinding him as his own, nervous smile turns softer.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Time slows to a crawl, by now such a recurring event Izuku doesn’t even notices, right as a card appears in a shower of bright light in between him and his new friend, bright and spinning in front of the young man’s eyes.

**“Thou have forged a new bond… It shall bring thou closer to thy dreams…”**

The card stops, revealing its current rank of I, as well as the bold, singular X written beneath the image, featuring a large, wooden spinning wheel, a bloated grey wolf sitting atop it, smiling widely at the watcher, its weight heavy upon the rickety contraption, the beast’s eyes blindfolded by a red ribbon, a golden crown of thorns upon its brow, three hooded figures prostrating at the wheel and the creature’s feet, right at the bottom of the card.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Fortune Arcana”**

Time crawls back to its proper pace, allowing the umpire to saunter toward the two classmates, her hands on her hips.

“Well, if you two lovebirds have finished flirting with each other…” Midnight says with a authoritative tone, each hand going to each student back and gently yet firmly pushing them toward the edge of the ring, “I say you can all get back to your friends right now, we need this ring for the other contestants you know?”

“Oh, Oh yes, sorry!” Izuku stammers out, only earning another giggle from Ashido, “We… we’ll be on our way!”

The teacher sighs, the two rapscallions hastily making their way out of the ring, the crowds finally quieting down from their attack on Aizawa, returning to the grumbling, slumbering beast ready to lash out at any contestant at a moment notice…

Much like the other, slumbering beast, simmering and boiling beneath the arena’s grounds, ready to erupt at the most opportune time.

* * *

“Tokoyami!” Izuku exclaims as soon as he and Mina joins back with his class on the section of the stadium’s seats that was assigned to them, a small, hopeful smile appearing on his face, “Do you have any news on…”

The raven headed young man shakes his head, a saddened expression appearing on his face, Izuku’s words dying in his mouth as dread returns simmering in his stomach.

“I’m sorry Midoriya, it seems we didn’t have much luck on that front yet,” Tokoyami replies, attracting everyone’s confused eyes to him and Izuku, “I’ve just gotten here in case he showed up, but…”

Izuku sighs, his eyes scanning over his class, his brows furrowing slightly as he realizes who else is missing in their merry little group, alongside Todoroki and some of the students Izuku knows are about to have their matches soon.

“Oh, he had a family emergency,” Uraraka says in a worried tone, “A… A villain attacked his brother while he was patrolling, he didn’t want to tell us anything more, I really hope nothing too bad happened to him…”

The dread in the pit of Izuku’s stomach turns heavier, darker, the young man slowly gulping at his friend’s words as he seats next to her.

“I… I’m sure… I’m sure there is no reason to worry about anything…” Izuku says, and he almost believes in it himself, “His… His brother is Ingenium, he’s one of the greatest heroes of his generation, and he’s Iida’s brother too, I’m sure… I’m sure nothing too bad happened to him.”

“I… I hope you’re right Deku…” Uraraka sighs out, her brows furrowed in worry, right before getting shushed by Jiro, the young woman sitting on the edge of her seat as she looks down at the spectacle below.

“Shut up guys, we’ll get depressed about Iida’s brother later, it’s starting!”

* * *

“And after that DISGRACEFUL display from Midoriya Izuku - OW, stop hitting me Aizawa, I know what I saw! – Anyway, after… that mess, here’s the second match of today’s tournament!”

“A battle of opposites! In this corner, the plainest guy you’ll ever have the misfortune to encounter, managing to get to the ninth place on the obstacle race, and barely scrapping by the third place in the cavalry battle, we have the tape dispenser guy himself… Sero Henta!”

“Damn man, why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” Sero mutters under his breath, a self-deprecating smile appearing on his face.

“And in the other corner, brain and beauty in one, gorgeous package, it’s the Recommended Student, the Lady of Infinite Creation, third place in the obstacle race, first place in the cavalry battle… Yaoyorozu Momo!”

Yaoyorozu chuckles awkwardly under the unexpected praise, the cheering of the crowd getting deafening as she sheepishly rubs her elbow, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

“Oh man, everyone wants you to win way more than me, that doesn’t really help a man’s self-esteem you know?” Sero says with a sigh, the young man stretching his arms upward right as Midnight announces the start of the match.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it anyway!”

Two streams of tape erupt from his elbows, shooting onward toward Yaoyorozu, startling her before she could even react to anything, tying her up into a cocoon of tape, her head the only thing visible right now.

“Oh my GOD Aizawa, why are all your male students such perverts!” Present Mic shouts out, right as Sero severs his connection to one of his tape streams, grabbing his other with his hands as he pulls at it, “First the green sex offender assaulting that poor girl, next we have this other one tying a girl up with his Quirk, is there any limit to your class’ depravity!”

“Mic, I swear, if you don’t stop provoking the angry mob watching our games this instant, I’m not the only one who’s going to be forced into casts in this booth…”

Sero doesn’t even register Present Mic’s words, nor the renewed round of booing coming from the crowd, too preoccupied as he was as he, fruitlessly, attempted to lift Yaoyorozu off the ground, to no avail.

“Are you… are you alright there Sero…?” Yaoyorozu asks in a worried tone, tilting her head to the side as she looks at her struggling classmate, “Do you need me to call Midnight so she can get you a stretcher bot or…”

“What the… what the hell…” Sero stammers out, his brow drenched in sweat, his breath haggard, “It won’t budge, no matter how hard I pull, it’s too damn heavy!”

“How much do you even weigh Yaoyorozu!” Sero yells in exasperation, cutting over his other connection to the other tape as he runs toward Yaoyorozu’s face turns bright red at her classmate’s words, steams literally coming out of her hears.

“You… you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Yaoyorozu screams, her eyes narrowing as her Quirk activates, metal spikes erupting off her body like a porcupine, spearing over the tape tied all over her and shredding it to pieces, Sero narrowly dodging the couple spikes going his way, one of which getting awfully close to his head, making him stumble in place, his charge broken.

Which is the exact moment when, freed from the confines of Sero’s prison, even with parts of her gym uniform in tatters, that Yaoyorozu Momo produces a whole ass gun from her cleavage, barely giving the time to anyone to react before aiming and shooting at her opponent at point blank range, nailing him straight in the head.

“Aw man…” Sero has barely the time to whine, because nothing outside of superhuman speeds would have really even given him the chance of dodging a gunshot, especially not at such close ranges, that he falls down on the ground, completely out of it, the sleep dart doing its dirty work as he goes out like a light, a furious Yaoyorozu stomping all the way to her downed classmate.

“I’ll let you know I am of a reasonable, regulated weight for a girl my age, especially for one whose Quirk is specifically dependent on the number of calories she takes!” Yaoyorozu yells, barely noticing as a stunned Midnight gave her the win, her eyes widening as she realizes her opponent current state.

“And… I realize now you’re currently unable to hear my reasoning,” she says, her tone suddenly turns sheepish, an awkward chuckle escaping her lips, “So, sorry about this, I’ll be sure to repeat my reasonings after you’ve been administered the proper medical attention.”

On the Class 1-A seats, a stunned Izuku’s eyes widen at the sight below him, hands mechanically still working on his notebook as he scribbles away the results of the fight, muttering softly in the process.

One hand comes to his shoulder, breaking his analysis as he looks to his left in confusion.

Uraraka’s usually cheerful demeanour is gone, the young woman looking at him with a a sombre look on her face, one mirrored by Ashido and Asui right behind her.

“Deku,” She begins in a grave, serious tone, her eyes shining with emotion, “It’s been nice knowing you, I hope you’ll be happy to know I’ll treat Small Might as if he was my own son after Yaoyorozu makes an orphan out of him.”

“Oh come on guys, we should have more confidence in our vice president, I’m sure he will not get wrecked too badly” Shinso drawls from his own seat, lazily getting back up from his seat as he leaves for his own match.

Izuku Laughs awkwardly at his friend’s words, the young man stopping in his step as he passes Izuku’s seat, looking back at him with a sardonic smile, “Still man, if you do die, just know I’m calling dibs on your All Might Stalker Shrine.”

“That thing must be worth a fortune.”

* * *

“Neither of these students have really shined through this sports festival, but let’s still give a round of applause for our new contestants, Shinso Hitoshi and Kuroiro Shihai!”

Kuroiro Shihai smirks, calculating eyes squinting as his opponent makes his way onto the square ring they’re about to have their match in. He doesn’t have any idea about what his Quirk might be, but it doesn’t matter really. Not using it till then meant it was probably something not particularly suited for battle, which would do just fine for Kuroiro and his own, not particularly flashy Quirk, his brain is already working a mile a minute, analyzing every single possible outcome for their incoming battle, every possible reaction coming from the purple haired young man in front of him, and every possible way he could in turn react to it, all to the point he could have an easy and secure way to easily sneak inside his adversary’s shadow, for a quick and easy surprise takedown.

_“Come into my Parlour, said the spider to the fly…”_

His mouth twists into a smirk, conscious of his own opponent ignorance of his own Quirk, the battle won even before it could really start, all possible courses of action accounted for.

“Oi, let’s have a clean and exciting match for the audience, OK?” The fool says with a yawn, Kuroiro rolling his eyes at his simple- minded words, his grin turning feral, failing to resist his urge to gloat.

“Oh, you poor fool… soon, you’ll know the true meaning of ex-” Kuroiro begins with a confident smile, only for his next words to die in his throat the second Midnight announces the beginning of the match, his eyes going blank as he stares at his opponent with a vacant expression on his face.

“Good, now, be a good boy, and lose this one for me, OK?”

And the match was won before it could even start.

* * *

“And the crowd goes mild…” Present Mic comments in a dejected tone, everyone watching in stunned silence as Kuroiro simply… walks out of bonds, forfeiting the game without even looking back.

An inhuman wail erupts from the wall separating the Class 1-A booth from their neighbours, everyone in class instantly going on high alert at the sound, turning toward the perceived threat, each of them entering their own fighting stance.

“You… you bastards!” Monoma’s voice shrieks out, the young man having somehow managed to climb his way up the wall, barely hanging up there with his arms, head poking over the wall, “What did you do to Kuroiro, did you bribe him? Intimidate him with your own villainous ways? How dare you force one of my precious classmates out of this competition in such an unsightly way!”

“That… that wasn’t us!” Izuku stammers out, eyes wide at the sudden accusation, “That was just Shinso’s Quirk, he can mind control people,

“Ah, I knew it, you’re a class filled with cheaters and scoundrels!” Monoma continues, eyes widening to an abnormal degree as a feral, unhinged, and perhaps possibly rabid smile appears on his face, “First the exploding Pomeranian almost blowing me and my friends to bits, then you and that other guy, the sex offenders, and now this, a villain with a villain quirk in a villainous class filled with villainous, arrogant braggarts! I call cheating, I call cheating I say, I shall protest to the public morals committee, to the umpire, to the principal, I shall go to the Hero Commission itself if I MU-!”

He doesn’t have the time to finish his sentence, that his eyes grow blank, falling from the divisor wall in between the two classes, back to his own side.

“We’re… we’re sorry for Monoma’s… exuberance,” A female member of class 1-B says from behind the wall, a sheepish chuckle following suit, “He’s… he’s usually way nicer, he’s just… really passionate about class spirit, and some times it shows in… pretty extreme ways. I hope he didn’t bother any of you too much…”

“Oh, don’t… don’t worry…” Izuku says with his own sheepish chuckle, everyone around him relaxing a bit at the young woman’s words, “It was… it wasn’t a big deal, and we can understand how… upsetting it might be for someone to see their friends lose in such a way… It was only natural really…”

“Ah, as if that was anyone’s fault but shady-shit there!” Bakugou grunts out with a cruel laugh, “had that extra watched what he was saying rather than blab his mouth like a loser, maybe he wouldn’t have been thrown out of bonds so easily!”

A couple outraged gasps are heard from beyond the divisor wall, most members of class 1-A cringing awkwardly at Bakugou’s harsh words, a couple directing their glares at the explosion powered young man, only earning a growl from the young man in question.

“Mphf, here I am trying to make amends, and that’s how class 1-A responds? By mocking one of my friends, and not even to his face?” The young woman from beyond the wall says in a curt tone, “Maybe Monoma is right after all…”

“Bakugou, dammit, you’re making us look bad now!” Kirishima whisper-shouts to his classmate, “You shouldn’t talk shit about people who aren’t there to defend themselves, it’s unmanly as fuck dude!”

“Ah, if that bitch wants, I can go there and say everything I think about that pathetic second-rate class of theirs to their faces!” Bakugou shouts out, earning more gasps and screams of outrage from beyond the wall, “Oh yeah, you heard me, and what are you going to do about it uh, you extras?!”

Izuku sighs in exasperation, having by now gotten enough experience with Bakugou to know that whatever he could have said of done to placate him, it would have just made things worse.

So, instead, he simply decides to Ignore him, even as he pokes the proverbial sleeping dragon, his attention getting back to the ring below, and the fight that was soon to commence.

* * *

“And we’re in the middle of the Eight-Finals already! In this corner, another member of class 1-B, one that will hopefully give us a more dignified performance than the previous student, Kaibara Sen! While in the other, covered from head to toe in her own support items, support course student, Hatsume Mei!”

“Hold it!” Midnight, the umpire, shouts, whip smacking against the ground as she points her finger towards Kaibara, currently also covered head to toe with Hatsume patented support items “You didn’t fill the appropriate documentation for the support items you’re wearing, you cannot participate to the match with them!”

“Oh, ah, my… opponent offered them to me, she said she had developed some items for someone with a Quirk just like mine, and she asked me to try them out for them,” The student says with a sheepish tone, one, drilled hand coming to his neck and awkwardly scratching it “She was… really convincing about it, so I thought I was allowed to use them if they came from my… own opponent and all…”

“Mmmmm, fine, I’ll allow it.” Midnight says with a pleased grin, “Just don’t come run crying to me when the inevitable happens.”

“Uh?” Kaibara says with a perplexed frown, right as Midnight announces the start of their match, a fiendish glint appearing in Hatsume’s lemon coloured, cross-haired eyes as a grin spreads across her face.

“It’s showtime.”

* * *

After the… twenty minutes long advertisement break courtesy of one Hatsume Mei, which nevertheless ended with Kaibara’s victory, mostly due to Hatsume having finished items to advertise and simply giving up on the spot, it’s time for Shoji and Sato’s own match.

“W- well, I guess I’ll go… prepare myself for my own match then…” Uraraka says with a sheepish chuckle, stiffly standing up from her seat and marching toward their booth’s exit, flinching slightly as Bakugou gets up to do the same.

Izuku watches as his friend goes inside the corridor leading out of their class’ booth, a worried frown on his face.

“You should go to her, Kero.”

Izuku almost shrieks, startled as he is by Tsuyu’s sudden appearance at the side next to him, wide eyes turning toward her.

“You probably know Bakugou and Uraraka’s… Quirks better than anyone here, kero,” Tsuyu continues, a determined frown appearing on her face, “you should talk to her, at least to ease her worries a bit, kero…”

“But she… she doesn’t want my help,” Izuku points out in a subdued tone, a sigh escaping his lips, “She specifically said she didn’t want to lean on me or my power in this tournament, I cannot… I cannot force her to accept my help…”

“Really, and to think I had you pegged for someone who would help his friends even if no one asked him to, kero,” Tsuyu drones out, tilting her head to the side as she places her index finger against her chin, “You don’t need to fight this match for her, you just need to be there for her, and try to ease her worries, kero. Like a friend would, Kero.”

“O- Ok then…” Izuku says with a gulp, “But only after your own match, I owe it so Shoji to watch his fight, and I don’t want to miss yours either…We’re friends too after all, right?”

“Wouldn’t that be just because you want to keep tabs on my Quirk when we face each other in the finals, Kero?” Tsuyu ponders in a dry tone, the sudden accusation making Izuku sputter in surprise, right as the frog girl stands back up from her seat, heading toward the mouth of the corridor, “Mmmmm, fine by me Kero, take all the notes you want, it’s not going to change much in the end kero. In fact, it might be even better that way Kero, we can go both to her prep room to help her not psych herself out, two green heads are better than one after all, right Kero?”

Izuku nods, a bashful grin appearing on his lips.

“S- sure Tsuyu. And don’t worry, I’m sure Uraraka will do just fine by herself for now.”

* * *

“It’s time for a battle among titans today, folks! In this corner, class 1-A own atlas, literally carrying his team on his back to the second place of the cavalry Battle, Shoji Mezo, from class 1-A!”

The crowd’s reaction is mixed, Shoji sighing to himself as he stands on his side of the ring, stare fixed on his opponent.

“And in the other corner, the sugar powered strongman who managed to slumber his way to victory, it’s Sato Rikido, also from class 1-A!”

“May the strongest hero win then,” Sato says with a confident smirk, muscles prominent beneath his gym suit, already setting himself into a fighting stance.

“Or the most resilient, more like…” One of Shoji’s mouths points out, each arm readied for battle, right as Midnight signals the start of the match.

* * *

It’s not as a prolonged fight as one would think, Sato’s time limit on his quirk, added to his weakening mental capabilities as well as Shoji’s natural resilience, allow him to barely perform five minutes of unrelenting assault onto Shoji, barely budging him from his defending position, before getting bear hugged by the other giant right as he misses his next hit, his step faltering as six arms wrap around his body and supplex him right into the ground, winning the match.

“Shoji’s defence must be insensate, as good as he was with dealing with those blows without so much as flinching, even during the Cavalry Battle he managed to take on most of our enemies hits for most of it, I wonder just how much punishment must he be able to take before seriously getting injured…” Izuku mutters, eyes focused on his open notebook as he keeps on writing, “But even Sato’s Quirk is nothing to joke about, against someone less resilient than Shoji he would have probably been able to overcome his opponents within his own time limit, I wonder if there might be a way to prolong the-”

“ _Mon ami_?”

Izuku’s concentration is broken, distracted from his scribbling by a hand coming to his shoulder, squeezing him softly, the young man looking up from his book at his friend’s grimace, a worried frown appearing on Izuku’s face at the sight.

“You do realize you’re freaking everyone out with all that muttering, _oui_?”

Izuku startles at Aoyama’s words, his eyes scanning the sheepish faces of his many classmates, worried looks aimed his way, the young man already beginning a quick, stammered apology to his classmates, only to be cut off by Present Mic… presenting the contestants for the next bout.

* * *

“We’re off to another crowd favourite already it seems! In this corner, from class 1-A, she was the leader of the team who managed to score the first place in the Cavalry Battle, managing to steal the Ten Million Points headband with a simple leap, the frog-powered girl herself, Asui Tsuyu!”

The audience explodes in a round of cheers, Tsuyu making her way to her side of the square ring, looking all around her with a neutral expression.

“Man, class 1-A girls sure are popular…” Her opponent says with a sigh, he too making his way toward the ring from the opposite side of the field.

“And in this other corner, Class 1-B’s own wind blowing warrior, Tsuburaba Kosei!”

The more subdued cheers all around them at Tsuburaba’s presentation are instantly drowned out by Class 1-B’s own cheers of encouragement, their booth exploding in support of their fellow classmate.

“KICK HER ASS TSUBURABA, I DON’T KNOW WHAT EVERYONE ELSE SAY BUT YOU’RE WAY BETTER THAN THAT, SHOW THOSE SNOTTY CLASS 1-A BRAGGARTS WHO THE REAL HEROES ARE!”

Tsuburaba laughs awkwardly at his team leader’s words, so loud he could hear them all the way from the ring, a hand scratching the back of his neck, a smidge of confidence funnelling back into the young man.

“Well, I can’t let my friends down now, can’t I?” Tsuburaba says, readying himself, a cocky grin appearing on his lips “I’ll be sure to give them a fight they’ll be surely proud of!”

“AND BEGIN!”

The two opponents do not move yet, staring each other down, as if they were two rival cowboys, and the town they both lived in happened to be just not big enough to both of them, and then…

Air enters Tsuburaba’s lungs, taking a deep breath right as Tsuyu’s tongue shoots out, a wall of air erupting from his mouth, the young man already on the move, taking another deep breath in right as Tsuyu’s tongue crashes against his air construction…

Easily shattering it with just one hit.

Unhindered, Tsuyu’s tongue slithers in toward Tsuburaba’s neck, strangling his breath away as it wraps around it, the frog-like woman slinging herself toward him with one hop as he clutches at her tightening tongue, uselessly gasping for breath.

Tsuyu dropkicks Tsuburaba’s stomach, her tongue unwrapping from him at the last second before momentum takes its course, the young man flying over the edge of the ring without even having the time to breath in for a platform to land on, falling into a heap with a strangled cry.

Silence reigns around the stadium for what was probably the fastest match till now, only to easily break into screams of jubilation over Tsuyu’s fast paced victory, a still dazed Tsuburaba getting sitting back on the ground with a dazed expression on his face, one hand rubbing at his neck, and the mark Tsuyu’s tongue had left on it.

“That was a nice match, kero,” She says, getting near her opponent and offering her hand to help him up, light streaming from behind her, framing her frog-like features into a halo of light, a slight blush appearing on Tsuburaba’s features as he takes the offered hand without much thought, standing back up on his feet, “Hope you’ll last at least a couple more minutes next time we meet, Kero.”

And then she’s gone, strolling out of the arena under the cheers of the adoring crowds, Tsuburaba only able to stare back at her with wide eyes, his hand still rubbing at his abused neck.

“That… girl really wiped the floor with me uh?” He breaths out, frozen on the spot, his blush turning redder, “I had a girl’s tongue wrapped around my neck and chocked me so hard I almost couldn’t breathe uh?”

His eyes widen as something… weird stirs deep within his gut, not exactly an… unpleasant sensation, as much as an unexpected, and frankly quite worrying one, the feeling of Tsuyu’s tongue, of the power she had held over him now embed in his very brain, haunting him for the years to come.

“God, I hope this doesn’t awake anything in me…”

* * *

“T- that was great, T- Tsuyu!” Izuku stammers out, a bright smile on his face as he manages to meet back with her in the corridors outside of the various practice rooms situated in the bowels of the UA Stadium, “T- that class 1-B s- student didn’t even know w- what hit him!”

“All in a day’s work, kero,” Tsuyu says, sounding vaguely smug, or at least as smug as she can sound, the two stopping right in front of Uraraka’s own prep room, the door opening and revealing Uraraka inside.

“Asui, Deku?” Uraraka grits out, brows uncharacteristically furrowed, eyes narrowed and serious, the contrast with her usual cheery demeanour giving Izuku whiplash, “What are you guys doing here? I thought you still had to your own match…”

“Destroyed my opponent in record time, kero,” Tsuyu replies, taking a seat next to Uraraka with a ribbit, taking her trembling hands in hers “Probably gave him a complex or two while I was at it, kero, but what can you do kero…”

“Oh… so I’m up soon then…” Uraraka says, her limbs taking in a slight tremble at the news, “G- great, did you two come here to… wish me g- good luck or…”

“Y- yeah, s- something about that…” Izuku stammers out, standing as he is on Uraraka’s other side, his eyes focusing onto his friend, her own features easing softly as she’s surrounded by friends, “Your… your next opponent is Bakugou, right Uraraka?”

Uraraka flinches at Izuku’s words, her gaze turning to steel as she sharply turns toward him.

“Yes, and I… I don’t need any strategy nor… nor anything else from you Deku, so if… if you’re here to try to tell me something like that-”

“N- no, no, I…” Izuku stammers out, hands coming up in surrender, “I do not want to… do anything of the sort, I’m… I’m sure you must have prepared some… incredible strategy already…”

“Ah, you bet I am,” Uraraka spits out, confidence surging back into her, “So watch me Deku, I’m going to trash Bakugou without neither your help nor your power!”

“Mmmmm, I don’t know about that, kero,” Tsuyu points out, one finger coming to her chin as she tils her head on the side, “You might be strong Uraraka, but from what little I’ve seen of Bakugou, he’s like a rabid dog when it comes to his enemies kero, a rabid dog who just happens to have found a lit dynamite stick and mistook it for a bone kero, I don’t think your power alone might cut it…”

Uraraka bristles under her friend’s words, a betrayed look aimed at her friend right as Izuku eyes start growing wide.

“What, I always tell what’s on my mind, kero, I thought you both understood that by now kero,” Tsuyu points out in a matter of fact tone, “And what’s on my mind right now, is that you cannot defeat Bakugou with only… parts of your power. You need to both of your Quirks.”

Uraraka stiffens, slowly gulping as she stares down her friend for one, long second, time stretching over indefinitely.

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Uraraka begins, only to be promptly cut out by Tsuyu’s next words.

“Midoriya spilled the beans, Kero.” Tsuyu says, Uraraka ire switching back toward her loose lipped friend, Izuku shrinking slightly under his friend’s glare, “He said how he might have passed part of his Quirk to you kero, hence how you managed to summon something very similar to his Personas to protect us at the USJ, kero, and I… I honestly can’t understand why you would want to keep it a secret, kero…”

“Because it’s… it’s complicated…” Uraraka says in a frustrated tone, gritting her teeth as she turns back toward Tsuyu, “You know how… cutthroat the hero world is out there Tsuyu, especially for a heroine, but I don’t want to become famous out of… of someone else’s Quirk! That wouldn’t be me, that wouldn’t be my Quirk, and I don’t know if I would be able to live myself if I allowed that…”

“But this is your Quirk now kero, so why wouldn’t you want to use it kero?” Tsuyu says in a legitimately confused tone, tilting her head to the side at her friend, “That’s what I don’t understand, kero, you have the opportunity of a lifetime, why not go all out due to some... petty pride kero.”

“B- because it’s still not MY quirk,” Uraraka spells out, her tone also growing frustrated, “Heck, I didn’t even want it in the first place, Deku gave it to me, without asking me mind you, and if I were to use it then that wouldn’t be fair to-”

“Unfair to whom?” Izuku asks, his expression unreadable, his tone ice, snuffing Uraraka’s anger out in an instant, even as she turns toward him to retort, her voice dying in her mouth as she looks straight into his green eyes, a worried ribbit coming out of the frog girl at her side, “Bakugou who was born with his strong, versatile Quirk, while yours was… given to you? What’s the difference between… between you and him then? just because you weren’t born with it, that’s not also your Quirk? Is that what you’re saying Uraraka?”

“You earned this Quirk,” Izuku bits out, his voice hard, as if he’s saying that to himself more than she is saying it to her, “You earned it the second you fought back against your demons and won, I didn’t handle it to you on an silver platter out of pity, heck, I wasn’t even part of the whole process, you did everything yourself Uraraka, this is your power now, whatever you like it or not, and you should be using it at the best of your possibility!”

“That… that doesn’t mean you get to decide over me using it or not, especially not now, during one of the most important contests of my life!” Uraraka bits out, coming over her initial shock as she stands up from her seat, her chair tumbling to the ground as she stomps right in front of Izuku, almost snarling, their faces inches apart, neither of them backing down, “Why can’t you understand that Deku, why do you push me like this?! This is not what I want!”

A long silence follows, stretching infinitely, their bond stretching with it like a string, pulled on both sides in tension, almost fraying…

“You’re right,” Izuku breaths out, taking one step back, Uraraka doing the same, the string connecting them easing back from its previous tension, all three members of the room giving out a sigh of relief neither of them knew they were holding, “You’re right Uraraka, this is still your choice to make. If you don’t want to use… your other Quirk against Bakugou, I can… I can understand it Uraraka, I’m… I’m sorry if I came off as pushy to you…”

“I… no, I understand Deku, you just… wanted what was best for me…” Uraraka breaths out too, her gaze sweeping between her friends, “I’m… I’m sure you all want it, you, Tsuyu, heck, I’m sure Iida would be here to with all of you had he not had to return home for his brother…”

A heavy silence fills the room, no one really knowing what to say or do anymore, Uraraka averting her gaze from her friend, ready to leave the room and join on her own match, a foul taste in her mouth…

“Ok, I… I will not press you anymore on this but I… I just… I just want you to know this…” Izuku says after a long pause, eyes starting to tear up a little without even realizing it, stopping Uraraka before she can even move with just a couple words, “Me, Bakugou, Ashido, Tokoyami, Iida, Tsuyu, Shinso… everyone in this tournament… we are all giving our all to win this, we are all trying our hardest to overcome every obstacle and get to first place, and I know you Uraraka, I know you are among one of the most motivated students in our class but…”

“But is like you said during the athlete pledge Urara… You should also do your best today, you should also do your all to win this tournament,” Izuku says after another deep breath, his nerves settling, a determined look on his face, “And you don’t owe it to Tsuyu who is worried about you, or to Iida who couldn’t be here with us, or to Bakugou who will definitely not hold anything back, or even to me who is telling you this in the first place… but to yourself, for your career, your dream, but also your own pride, least one day you think back to this sports festival, and regret not having given your all here.”

Uraraka’s gulps at Izuku’s words, at the sheer determination emanating from his eyes, and she can’t help but mirror his expression, her own eyes burning with the same passion, the same spirit as Izuku’s, her nerves settling once and for all.

“Alright Deku,” Uraraka says, her eyes narrowing back to a determined frown, “I promise I will give everything I’ve got out there, and we’ll see each other in the finals!”

“Pretty sure he will be the one seeing me in the finals, kero,” Tsuyu points out with a pleased ribbit, “But I’m glad to see you’re not as worried as you were before, Kero…”

“Oh, we’ll see about it in the semi-finals Tsuyu, don’t worry,” Uraraka shoots back as she turns toward her friend, a confident smirk appearing on her face, the young woman going at the door, giving her friend a thumbs up, “Now, Kirishima’s match must be about to end, I better get ready for my… my next battle, and you both better cheer me on from the audience seats!”

“Y- yes Uraraka,” Izuku stammers out, the young woman leaving the two teens back alone in the preparatory room, a awkward silence filling it back.

“You do also know she doesn’t stand a chance if she doesn’t also use your Quirk, right kero?” Tsuyu points out, a grim look crossing over Izuku’s features at her words, their eyes trained at the closed door in front of them “She’s a great person kero, and she’s going to be a great hero one day with her Quirk, but she’s stuck in an incredibly bad match up against Bakugou kero… she needs an edge to get to him to activate her Quirk, before he can trigger his explosions on her, kero…”

“I… I know…” Izuku sighs tiredly, all tension leaving his body as his knees buckle, almost giving out from under him, “But… she’s also right. This should be her choice to make, we shouldn’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to know, even if that’s going to cost her the match…”

Tsuyu simply ribbits in agreement, her own pensive look turning toward Izuku.

“Look at you, kero, helping out a potential rival just because you have a crush on her, kero,” Tsuyu points out, Izuku sputtering, almost chocking on his own spit at her accusation, his face turning bright red, “Shinso is right, you really are a simp, kero…”

“What… No, t- that’s not true, s- she’s just my g- good friend and I d- don’t want to see her l- lose!” Izuku says, his face getting redder by the second, “I w- would have d- done the s- same thing for a- any other of m- my classmates, you a- among them, I s- swear.”

“You do realize that only makes it worse right, kero?” Tsuyu replies, finger coming to her chin as she tilts her head to the side, “That just means you’re a simp and you got no standards, kero.”

“Oh… oh yeah, then why are you also here to help Uraraka out then?” Izuku shoots back, trying to deflect the conversation toward anything but himself, “S- she’s also your rival a- after all, why are you helping her t- too then?!”

“Oh, that’s because I do also have a crush on her, kero,” Tsuyu admits in a neutral tone, like it’s the most normal thing in the world, Izuku’s face reaching shades of red never before believed possible on the human skin.

“You… like Uraraka?” Izuku asks in an incredulous tone, his eyes wide, “Like… Like-like Uraraka?!”

“Yes, kero?” Tsuyu replies, her voice suddenly turning wary, “Is this… did I completely misread you or something, kero? Because if you’re not cool with me liking both sexes kero…”

“What! N- no, that’s… that’s not it at all!” Izuku cries out, perhaps a bit more loudly than he would like, Tsuyu’s eyes still warily looking up at him, “I am the last person who will ever judge you over… anything you are really, I’m just surprised you’ve been so… open with telling this to me, right here, right now…”

“I told you already, I am always honest with my feelings, Kero…” Tsuyu says, a tension Izuku hadn’t even noticed before easing out from her shoulders, a relieved sigh escaping her lips, “And I am more observant than people give me credit for, hence why I… I thought it was safe for me to tell you this, right now, after we’ve both helped our… our crush out, kero.”

“Ah, but… I don’t think you got that one right really, I… I d- don’t have a crush on Uraraka…” Izuku says, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck with one hand, “I mean, she’s amazing, and cute, and funny, and really knows how to make friends and make people at ease, and saved my life more times than I can count, but… She… she’s going to be a great hero some day, and to do that she needs to focus on UA, not… not love.

“She told me so herself after all,” Izuku continues with a melancholic smile, “The first day we met each other at our dorms… that she wanted to only focus on her studies and her friends, rather than look for a boyfriend, and honestly?”

“I think that’s… amazing,” He breaths out, relief washing over him as tension leaves his shoulders, “That even more than I could have ever dreamed of in my life before coming here, having her as my friend, heck, probably my best friend, and I…”

Izuku turns back toward Tsuyu, a determined look on his face as he tries to convey the strength of his statement with his words and eyes alone.

“I would never ruin that, or our friendship for that matter, just because of a stupid crush…” He says, only to falter right at the very end, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks, “Crush that I… that I do not have, and never had, at all, in the slightest! You hear me?”

Tsuyu hums at Izuku’s words, a pensive look on her face, a cold sweet running through Izuku’s body as he’s kept under the frog girl’s inscrutable gaze.

“You aren’t telling me the whole story, Midoriya, I can tell kero…” Tsuyu points out with a frown, “But I can respect your privacy… for now, kero. Just promise me you’ll tell me when you’re ready, kero.”

“I… thank you Tsuyu…” Izuku says with a relieved sigh, “You are a good friend.”

“That I am, kero,” Tsuyu admits with an almost smug tone, Izuku chuckling slightly as she preens over his praise, right as time slows down to a crawl.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Tsuyu’s card erupts from Izuku’s chest, shining brightly as its rank upgraded from I to II, a soft smile appearing on Izuku’s face as his relationship with his friend grows closer.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring thou closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the High Priestess Arcana…”**

The card begins to slowly sink back within Izuku, time crawling back to its proper pace as the disembodied voice in Izuku’s head give him one, last

**“Thy affinity with the High Priestess Arcana has strengthened. Thou have gained a buff to your charisma and empathy when dealing with bonds with equal or higher rank than this one.”**

As time is finally put back in motion, a loud horn blares in the room, signalling the end of the Monoma VS Kirishima Match, Izuku jumping at the loud sound, startled, Tsuyu not even saying anything as she begins to head out of the room, one hand already grabbing at his as she almost drags him out of the room, back to their class’ booth.

“Come on, I feel Uraraka will need all the cheering she can to get out of this unscathed, kero…”

* * *

As it turns out, the Monoma VS Kirishima match ended up being a mirror match, Monoma managing to copy Kirishima’s quirk the second the redhead had managed to get a solid hit on him, turning it into a prolonged fight among the two students, class 1-B’s cheering for their classmate loud and supportive even as Monoma’s hits started getting fewer and weaker.

“He might have his same Quirk, but Monoma definitely doesn’t have the same training as that guy…” Tetsutetsu says with a sigh, a grimace appearing on his face “He doesn’t have the endurance, nor the skill to press this on, not against such a resilient opponent, which means that, with both of them having the same quirk…”

Monoma collapses to the ground in exhaustion, Kirishima staring down at him, his breath haggard, his brow and body glistening with sweat, but still standing, one fist raised in the air as Midnight declares him the winner.

“Man, poor Monoma,” Aibara says with a melancholic sigh, a sentiment seemingly shared by his entire class, “He worked so hard for this festival, scheming plots and helping each and everyone of us out so we could get into this tournament, training with us, helping us develop our Quirks… He must feel like shit right now…”

“Well, this gets to show we must never underestimate our opponents, no matter how weak or generic they might appear,” Kuroiro says with his own sigh. “May this be a lesson for us all, let’s carve this feeling in our hearts, so to strengthen us, empower us for our next trial, so to amend our past mistakes, and go forward a better future, together.”

“Man Kuroiro, you’re surprisingly profound when you’re not trying to be an edgelord.” Komori, a short young woman with a large head of hair covering her eyes, chirps in with a cheeky tone, the young man only sputtering at his friend’s words, a faint blush appearing on his face.

Kendo chuckles at the sight, her eyes turning downward toward the large ring, where the next and final match of the eighth finals was about to be disputed, a small frown appearing on her face.

“That girl might have stolen our team’s headbands without even much issues, and she might be in class 1-A…” Kendo says, attracting the attention of her neighbour seats, “But even I have to admit that, compared to that… that jerk, I’d rather wish she won this match than him.

“Ah, hard same,” Tsuburaba buts in with a scowl, “That jerk broke one of my bubbles just because he wanted to beat the crap out of Monoma. Damn, I feared for my own life back then, that’s not a hero I say, that’s a villain in the making!”

“Wait, weren’t you and your team heckling him for the whole match?” Kendo points out, narrowing her eyes at her friends, “That wasn’t very sportsmanlike guys, you all know we should not lower herself to these kinds of levels…”

“I’d usually agree with you Kendo, but honestly, you weren’t there when it happened,” Kaibara buts in from his seat, “Yes, Monoma and Tsuburaba went too far, but honestly? That still didn’t warrant that… that jerk’s murderous reaction to them. You need thicker skin if you want to become a hero, least you ended up lashing out against a civilian, a journalist, or heck, maybe even in your private life, no matter how many headbands you might steal from how many opponents.”

“Yeah, and his personality was also no joke either,” Kuroiro buts back in, having taken his mushroom induced blushing episode under control for the moment, “Like, at first I thought he was like their version of Monoma, just by how… abrasive he was treating us and the members of the other classes, but honestly? I’ve seen how he treated his own teammates; I’ve witnessed how he treated his own class, that man is nothing like our Monoma.”

“Yeah!” Tetsutetsu buts in, suddenly pumped up, “Our Monoma might be a control freak, and a schemer of the worst kind suffering from delusions of grandeur and frequent megalomaniacal episodes, and might also possess an hubris the size of Mount Fuji, but if I know one thing about that guy, is that he loves our class, and would give out his life for any of us in an instant!”

Many more people hum in agreement at Tetsutetsu’s statement, nodding alongside his every word.

“But that guy?” Tetsutetsu continues, a fire burning behind his eyes, “That guy looks just like a common jerk! I bet everyone else in his class is also rooting for the other girl to win!”

“Mmmmm, you might not be wrong there Tetsutetsu…” Kendo admits with a weary sigh, her eyes peering back at the two figures entering the ring below her, a small smile appearing on her lips, “Well, let’s hope he’s taken down a peg or two by that girl today then.”

“That’s the least we can expect from the first place of the Entrance Exam after all…”

* * *

“Ladies and gentlemen, here’s for the most explosive fight as of yet! In this corner, with a face not even a mother would love, the volatility of his temper second only to his explosion quirk, is the third place of the obstacle race, third place in the cavalry battle… Bakugou Katsuki of class 1-A!”

Bakugou stomps over his side of the ring, a scowl fixed on his face.

“And in the other corner, the first place of the hero course’s entrance exam, as well as one of the members of the team scoring first place on the Cavalry Battle, and my personal favourite for the incoming tournament if I can be honest with you all dear listener… Uraraka Ochako!”

A wall of sound crashes against the ring, cheers and screams erupting from the gathered crowd, barely even registered by Uraraka as she keeps eye contact with his opponent, a resolute look on her face.

“If you want to back down, do it now round face,” Bakugou spits out, glare now fully directed at Uraraka, “Because crying about it later is not going to cut it…”

“Giving up was never an option for me,” Uraraka spits back, readying herself for the incoming fight, a tense silence filling the arena as the seconds march on onward, until…

“AND BEGIN!”

Uraraka dashes forward, instantly, right as Bakugou readies his own attack, an explosion erupting from his right wrist rocketing her right at the face, Uraraka’s eyes growing wide as she protects herself with her arms from the blow, leaving a smoky haze behind.

His vision hindered by his own attack, Bakugou punches blindly in the fog, toward what he supposes to be Uraraka’s body, only to find her jersey as a decoy behind, the young woman already jumping to the side and attempting to flank her opponent.

Bakugou’s reaction timings are faster, another explosion erupting from his wrists and crashing against the young woman, making her bounce away from him, only to charge back again, a vicious cycle of charges and explosion, slowly wearing down Uraraka’s defences, as everyone in the stadium sits in stunned silence at the onslaught happening before their very eyes.

Then the crowd starts booing.

* * *

“Man, Class 1-A might be filled with losers, but they sure do how to work a crowd, uh?”

“Monoma!” Kendo is the first to react, turning to her side to find her classmate, one eye still visibly blackened and half closed, “What the heck are you doing here, you should be back in the infirmary room!”

“Ah, as if a short-tempered midget nurse could stop me!” Monoma grits out, smile turning feral, “Still, I have to say, maybe I was wrong about… some of their members… That Uraraka girl for starters, she sure knows how to work play to her strengths…

“What… what are you talking about dude?” Tsuburaba says, hands covering his eyes, unable to continue watching, “She’s getting wrecked, and by her own classmate no less. That guy is a monster!”

“Come on guys, did any of you ever tried to look up at the sky at any moment during their match?” Monoma chuckles out in a superior tone, some of the smoke clearing on the ring below, revealing Uraraka’s meteor field hovering straight above Bakugou, “Such a clever tactic, I’m almost sad she’s part of that accursed class 1-A, I wonder how will that arrogant fool come out of this one, what kind of clever strategy will he come up with in turn in order to come out of this one-”

Monoma’s words die in his mouth as his jaw hangs open, the sky is set ablaze by Bakugou’s explosion, obliterating Uraraka’s attack before it could even connect, fine dust falling onto the ground.

“Oh wow, he just made… a bigger explosion,” Kuroiro points out, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline as Uraraka stumbles in place, almost falls, her suicide attack having failed in such a spectacular way, “All that preparation and sacrifice and scheming… and he just makes… a bigger explosion.”

“God, that just… doesn’t seem fair,” Kendo buts in, a frown on her face as she looks at the fight below, “She doesn’t look so good from up here, I’m pretty sure unless a miracle happens, if things keep going this way she’ll lose for sure…”

Class 1-B mumble at their president’s words, everyone’s eyes fixed on Uraraka’s form, right as she attempts one, last charge, stumbling, hanging on the verge of her strength, even as Bakugou simply charges forward with yet another explosion.

And then, unexpectedly, without even a warning…

A miracle happens.

* * *

 _“It wasn’t enough…”_ Uraraka thinks, despair filling her as she looks at the ashes of her super move, barely standing up, the limit of her powers soon rearing their familiar head, “ _All my power, all my skills… weren’t enough. He just blew away my attack with-_ ”

“With just one move.”

Uraraka freezes, time slowing to a crawl as the waking world fades away from sight, her twisted, yellow eyed reflection appearing right in front of her, her eyes softer than she’d expected.

“What… what are you doing here?” Uraraka grits out, in the dark confines of her mind, the outside world frozen and obscured from sight by a thick, yellow fog, “I thought… I thought I defeated you, I thought you went away after the USJ… If you’re here to make things worse again I swear…”

“Oh, Uraraka, but I never really left your side, I simply became your Persona…” Shadow Uraraka points out, a small smile on her face, “That means I’ve never, ever really gone away Ochako. I’ve always been here, as her, waiting for your command to use me, to use your powers, commands that never came…”

“Ah, so you’re also here to tell me to use Deku’s Quirk, uh?” Uraraka grits out in exasperation, “I’m getting sick and tired of having to repeat myself, I’m not using you, I’m never going to use you, I can win this tournament without anyone’s help!”

“But you’re not winning,” Shadow Uraraka points out, a frozen Bakugou appearing within the yellow fog, “You never even managed to land a hit on him, and you’re barely hanging on to a thread right now. If you don’t accept my help, you’ll pass out the second reality comes back into focus, and I think you know that too…”

“Then I’ll lose!” Uraraka spits out, determined glare fixed on her own reflection, “Then I’ll lose this match and disappoint my parents and my friends and… and everyone else out there, but at least I’ll do it with my own powers!”

“Oh, but aren’t I your own powers too?” Shadow Uraraka buts in, a small smirk appearing on her face, “Aren’t I you, and you me? I thought we’ve gotten past that stage of our relationship Ochako, do I need to remind you who we truly are?”

“You know what I mean,” Uraraka grits out, teeth gritted, brows furrowed, “I’d rather lose this match than lose my… my pride, my integrity, not for something as stupid as a school competition.”

“Mmmmm, the sad thing is, we do actually believe that…” Shadow Uraraka sighs, a resigned smile on her face, “Fine then, lose your battle, give up on this, just so you know…”

“We might lose this match, but that also means Bakugou is not only winning this match, but the whole tournament too,” Shadow Uraraka continues, sauntering toward Bakugou’s frozen form, “And between you and me Ochako, I think we both know he really doesn’t deserve to win anything today, right?”

“What… what are you t- talking about…” Uraraka says, her posture stiffening under her shadow’s smirk, the young woman averting her gaze from her, “He… he’s a strong hero, and he has a great c- control o- over his Quirk, if he were to w- win this m- match it w- would be for his own m- merit…”

“Oh, I’m not talking about his skills of making bigger and flashier explosions,” Shadow Uraraka continues, one finger poking at their opponents’ head, “I’m talking about whatever or not he truly deserves the win after what he’s done, and don’t try to play dumb with yourself, you know I know you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Uraraka stays silent, not wanting to acknowledge her shadow’s, her persona’s words, her eyes scrunching up as… memories start playing in Uraraka’s brain, one after another, in rapid succession, connecting dots Uraraka had connected a long time before.

_“The first time I tried offering a bento to someone, he just poured it all over my head and demanded I thanked him for it.”_

_“Deku is the wrong way you can read my a- actual name, it… it means… It means useless, it’s a nickname Kacchan usually uses when he wants to insult me.”_

_Bakugou, not even listening to Deku’s muted pleas from behind the screen, as he aims his gauntlet toward him and fires, the young barely having the time to summon his Persona before being swallowed by Bakugou’s enormous explosion._

_“Look at you, shrinking into yourself as soon as someone raises his voice,” Bakugou spits at him, his eyes narrowing, “You’re not a hero, hell, you’re not that good of a villain either, you’re just a nuisance, and UA should have expelled you for it the first day we were here.”_

“I’m not doing this for Deku,” Uraraka bites out, her eyes opening, her glare now directed at her shadow, now inches apart for her face, a lazy, triumphant smile on the shadow’s lips, “If I am to… to betray my principles, and use you just… just so he doesn’t win, not after all the hard work I’ve put into this, WE are not doing this for anyone but ourselves. You better remember that.”

“Oh, but of course we’re doing this for ourselves, little Ochako, we were always going to do it for ourselves…” Shadow Uraraka points out with a smirk, right as time and reality sink back into frame, the yellow fog surrounding them slowly receding away “This was never about some silly boy in the first place after all, never about our best friend, or his school bully, or even about all those people, watching from the audience, cheering us, loving their stupid underdog story… No, this has always been only about us, about our future as a heroine… and about our blood, running through our veins, pushing us to heroism even if for what might seem the most selfish of reasons…”

“After all, would we really be able to call ourselves the heiress of the Amagi-Satonaka family, if we didn’t beat the crap out of a bully when we had the occasion?”

* * *

“Persona!”

Blue flames erupt in between Uraraka and Bakugou, Bradamante emerging from it with a flap of her glass-stained wings, Bakugou’s eyes widening as he hastily stops his charge, dodging to the left and grounding himself, right as Media’s bright light washes over Uraraka and her Persona, replenishing their strength, healing their wounds, a stunned silence filling the stadium as everyone’s eyes turn toward the new arrival in the ring.

“WHAAAAAAT?” Present Mic’s scream echoes through the stadium, loud and astonished, “It seems everyone favourite’s gravity manipulation girl has another trick up her sleeve, in the form of the same Quirk Midoriya Izuku of class 1-A has been using till now! What a shocking turn of events, is this even allowed?!”

“It is, actually. Aizawa drones with a bored drawl, “Hero students are allowed to use their Quirks to the best of their abilities during the Sports Festival, so to attract the attention of potential pro heroes for future sidekick and internship work, meaning as long as their Quirk is registered on the registry, they’re allowed to use it.”

“Uraraka’s… quirk has mutated, and that has been automatically updated to the national registry by the school’s mainframe system the second she developed it, and the principal has been… so kind to inform me about this just a couple days earlier,” Aizawa continues to drone on, “So I don’t care what the umpire might be thinking right now, but this is a completely legal move for her to take…”

“Oh, wasn’t going to Aizawa, don’t worry,” Midnight says, eyes ablaze as she stares at Uraraka’s persona, a large grin appearing in her face, “Such youthful passion, using her best card only in the heat of the moment, right when all hope seemed lost... as if I’d ever not allow that!”

“That…” Bakugou grits out, eyes wide as she stares at Uraraka’s persona, “That’s… That’s that shitty nerd’s quirk…”

His eyes narrow, hateful glare switching toward Uraraka, the young woman now back on her feet, staring down her opponent with renewed vigour, a cold glare on her face.

“I knew it, all that time spent with him, that bastard is helping you cheat too!” He growls out, propelling himself toward Uraraka in a fit of rage, explosions crackling on his wrists, the young woman not even moving from her spot as Bradamante sweeps right in between them.

In one, infinite second, Bakugou’s hands are outstretched, directed at Uraraka’s persona, ready to unleash an explosion on her, and then…

And then, Bakugou freezes, his eyes widening as memories come back flooding into him, about the last time he dared using his quirk against something coming out of Izuku’s quirk, and in that one, infinite second… he hesitates, explosions dying on his wrists.

And that’s his downfall.

“ _Garu_!”

Two voices chant as one as her wings flap wildly in the wind, gusts exploding from them and crashing right against an airborne Bakugou… and picking up something else with them.

Bakugou coughs, unbalanced in his flight as he hastily explodes away, right as the debris, the ashes, the dust, the remains of Uraraka’s final attack, the result of his continuous explosions against his opponent are carried on by the wind, blinding him as drops onto the ground, the world a dark haze as he looks around, unable to see where any threat was about to come, his ears deafened by the screaming of the crowds.

“Stop hiding yourself, you cheating round face…” Bakugou growls out, his nerves frying, his temper flaring, as his anger gets the best of him, “That fucking bastard, even when he’s not here he’s trying to ruin everything for me, did he put you up to this?!”

“Are you really so self-cantered to think everything is always about you?” Uraraka’s voice says from Bakugou’s direct left, Bakugou instantly turning toward it and blasting it blindly, a smirk appearing on his face as he hears the muffled cry of pain coming from her… right as something smacks against the back of his head, hard and fast, way stronger than he expected Uraraka to hit, gravity failing him as he somersault in the air from the impact, his feet leaving the ground, spinning wildly in the air, losing all sense of direction…

“ _Garu_!”

Right before a second burst of win hits him from behind, the blinded Bakugou being slammed by it onward what he assumes must be the bounds of the ring, a snarl appearing on his face at the realization.

“Oh, it’s not going to be so easy, round face!” Bakugou screams as he does what he knows best, and makes an explosion bigger than the problem he’s facing, only for the propulsion of his weightless body to overshoot its target, picking up more forward speed than he expected as he is shot forward, slamming right against something with a pained grunt, as his body, suddenly, picks back his weight.

“Bakugou Katsuki is out of bonds!” Midnight screams among the cheering of the crowds, “The winner is Uraraka Ochako!”

“I… I won…” Uraraka breaths out, a pained smile on her face, her persona gliding beside her, her armour and wings singed and still fuming, a gentle smile on her face as she disappears back inside Uraraka’s mind in a burst of blue flame, “I’ve managed… to beat Bakugou… I’ve managed to move to the quarter finals…”

And then all that pain and stress and fatigue she’s been feeling till now finally get the best of her as she falls to the ground, the pained smile still on her face even as she passes out from exhaustion, barely registering as the umpire rushes to her side, one thought, so like her, and yet not really hers, echoing in her mind as she drifts away in a dreamless sleep.

“Let’s work hard to get to first place now, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to SmashingSkunk53 for gracefully accepting to Beta Read this work. I don't know what I would have done without them.
> 
> Next Up, Izuku vs... Todoroki?!


	16. Lovers Arcana: Rank III; Story Event: Todoroki VS... Everyone?!

“Holy Shit.”

Jiro breaks the silence among Class 1-A’s booth, her eyes wide as she looks at the spectacle below her, the collapsed yet triumphant Uraraka…

As well as Bakugou, blasting off from his dent in the stadium’s walls toward the collapsed Uraraka, screaming in anger all the while, only to be swiftly knocked out by some of Midnight’s gas, slumping against the stadium’s grass.

“Uraraka managed to defeat Bakugou…” Kirishima says, his eyes growing wide. “Wait, does that mean… I have to face her in the quarterfinals?! Oh man that sucks, her Quirk completely counters mine!”

“Forget about _her_ Quirk, since when does Uraraka also have Midoriya’s Quirk?! Are they suddenly related now?!” Ashido asks her eyes equally as wide as she turns toward the direction she expects his classmate to be, “Midoriya, you have some explaining to…”

Ashido trails off, her brows furrowed in confusion, everyone attention turning toward Midoriya’s empty seat, only to find Tsuyu perched right on it, the other greenette nowhere to be found.

“He bolted out the second Uraraka collapsed, kero…” Tsuyu begins in a neutral tone, tilting her head to the side. “I guess he was just as surprised as all of us when she actually summoned her persona, kero.”

“You don’t look that surprised, Asui,” Ashido points out, her tone suddenly turning suspicious. “In fact, you and Midori sure disappeared for a really long time before Uraraka’s match… Did either of you already knew this was going to happen?”

“I’m only going to answer any of your questions with my lawyer present, kero,” Tsuyu replies in a dry monotone. “And please, I’ve already told you to call me Tsuyu, kero.”

Her classmates only turn more suspicious at her words, starting to crowd the frog girl from all sides, a dozen questions hanging in the air.

A sigh escapes Tsuyu’s lips, even as she successfully manages to divert everyone’s attention from Uraraka and Midoriya for the time being.

_“You owe me one, Midoriya kero…”_

* * *

Finding recovery girl’s impromptu infirmary hadn’t been that hard for Izuku, even with the limited time he still had before his own match.

Millions of worst-case scenarios swarm his mind, all born from after seeing Uraraka collapse on the ground after using the Quirk she got because of him… After seeing her persona getting blasted blindly by one of Bakugou’s explosions and knowing full well about the link bonding her with Uraraka…

The memories of his own self, aching and tired and stuck on his bed at home after the entrance exam getting to the forefront of his mind…

Only for him to come face to face with her while turning a corner, and almost crash into her in surprise, her new gym jersey slipping off her fingers in the process, cluttering to the floor.

“D- Deku, You scared me there!” Uraraka exclaims as she steadies him with her hands before he can fall.

As she carefully avoids him with her pinkie fingers, a concerned look appears on Uraraka’s face, soon turning into worry, “What… what are you doing here? your match is about to start!”

“U- Uraraka!” Izuku exclaims back, his cheeks turning into a faint blush, “I- what am I doing here? what are you doing here?! I thought you were in Recovery Girl’s infirmary!”

“Oh… ah, that was nothing!” Uraraka says with a sheepish chuckle, letting him go from her grip. “It wasn’t that serious you know, just some scratches and all, didn’t even need to get kissed by Recovery Girl to get better…”

Midoriya paused between the statements in confusion, looking his friend up and down to check if she really was fine, “But… you collapsed… I thought you’d be… out of it for longer, that’s what usually happens to me when I overdo my-”

“Ah, oh no, that was just my Quirk acting up,” Uraraka replies with a sheepish chuckle. “Silly me, biting more than I can chew with that last attack, I would have probably collapsed earlier had it not been for…”

She trails off, a faraway look on her face as she averts her gaze from Izuku, a defeated sigh escaping her lips.

“If it wasn’t for my Persona… for your Quirk…” She continues, a sad smile appearing on her lips. “Turns out you were right Deku, I really didn’t stand a chance out there without your help-”

“That’s not true!” Izuku exclaims, his eyes wide. “You were great out there, setting up that asteroid field, never letting him notice it till it was ready to strike, and you did that all by yourself too, without anyone help, I’m sure-”

“And then Bakugou blew all my hard work up by just making a bigger explosion.” Uraraka continues in a resigned tone, “Let’s face it Deku, I wasn’t great, and I wasn’t even close to winning, not with only my quirk… And I was too stupid to accept that till now.”

“God, I’m such selfish person…”

A tense silence fills the corridor as Izuku’s eyes fixed upon Uraraka’s resigned smile, a determined frown setting upon his own face.

“Why do it, then?” Izuku asks, his eyes narrowed, “Why use your Persona at all? I seemed to remember you didn’t intend to use it even if it cost you this tournament, even if it cost you your future, were you really so heavyset on winning that-”

“Oh no, it’s the other way around actually…” Uraraka says with a small chuckle. “I was completely willing to lose that match for my principles, I just… really, really, really didn’t want Bakugou to win.”

“Huh?” Izuku genuinely asks, his eyebrows shooting to his hairline, not entirely understanding what was going on. “I… I don’t quite follow-”

Uraraka hesitates, her eyes focusing on Izuku’s face, the young boy’s eyes lost.

“I mean, he’s such a jerk,” Uraraka effortlessly lies, her tone light and superficial, a small, bashful smile on her lips.

“Could I really allow someone like that to move up in this tournament, one of the most important events of our lives, and let myself fall to the wayside?” She continues with a sheepish tone, “That would have been a blow to my future career as much as it would have been a boon to his, and I believe we can both agree Bakugou has gotten enough shortcuts in his life already…”

Uraraka trails off with an awkward chuckle, her eyes focused on Izuku’s saddened eyes, seemingly not buying it, a sigh escaping Uraraka’s mouth.

“See, I told you I was a selfish person, I told you I would have let you down in the end… let everyone down…” Uraraka continues with a soft sigh, “I’m just a stupid girl who wanted to be a hero just so she could become rich, and yet is so ready to throw away all her grand speeches about doing it all by herself simply because some bully rubbed her wrong-”

On instinct, Izuku’s hands grab at Uraraka’s still bare arms, a small squeak escaping her lips as she raises her gaze toward him, his eyes narrowing at his friend’s words, something sparking behind them as his courage surges.

Uraraka’s complaints die in her mouth under Izuku’s glare, green orbs staring down brown ones as his mouth sets into a firm line, a faint, almost imperceptible blush colouring Uraraka’s cheeks at the sight.

“Uraraka Ochako,” Izuku says, his tone steady ~~,~~ without even a stutter, “Remember what you told me after the very first day of lessons? That you’d reached your way back to the top, back to the first place you earned during the Entrance Exam, no matter how hard you had to work on it… how is that not different from what you did today?”

“I… I used your Quirk…” Uraraka squeaks out, eyes fixed on Izuku’s green eyes, an unfamiliar buzzing feeling mounting in her stomach, even as she easily shrugs Izuku’s hold on her, “I told you… I did it for selfish reasons, just because I didn’t like my opponent-”

“And yet you also did it all for your dream of one day becoming a hero, and not even for yourself, for your parents, without even expecting anything in return for yourself… ” Izuku points out, a small smirk appearing on his face. “Uraraka, you are, by far, the least selfish person I’ve ever met, and you did not let anyone down, not me, or either your parents or any of our classmates, simply by giving your all in that fight.”

“You deserved that win, no matter what you or anyone else says, and I won’t let anyone, let alone my b- best friend, tell you or me otherwise,” Izuku concludes, faltering just a little, Uraraka’s eyes growing bigger at his words.

“S- so, please, stop beating yourself up over this…” Izuku finishes with a long breath, all tension leaving his body, “And… and just keep on giving your all in your next matches, no matter what… what other people will say, be them me or anyone else, and let’s…”

“Let’s see each other in the finals,” Uraraka concludes for him, a small, confident smirk appearing on her lips, “Fine Deku, I’ve used my Persona on a match now, might as well use it till the end, but just so you know, I’m going to kick your and your Persona’s butts so hard in the finals, you’ll regret advising me to use your Quirk in the tournament, got it?”

“I… I wouldn’t have it any other way…” Izuku says, a soft smile appearing on his face at his friend’s spirit, the feeling of her own determination filling him with a warm, confident feeling, right as he can feel time slowing to a crawl all around him.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

Uraraka’s card shoots out of Izuku’s chest, shining brightly as it spins, its rank moving from II to III, Izuku’s eyes widening at the sight.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring thou closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Lovers Arcana…”**

As the familiar words continue, Uraraka’s Persona erupts from her own chest, presenting itself to Izuku’s eyes, shining just as brightly as Uraraka’s Arcana.

**“The Lovers’ soul has grown and prospered under your guidance.”**

The Persona shines brighter, right as a new skill appears within it, _Wind Boost_ , before the card slowly sinks back within Uraraka, just as her Arcana slowly sinks back within Izuku.

**“Thy affinity with the Lovers Arcana has strengthened. Thou have now increased chances of finding Shadows belonging to an Arcana whose rank is equal or higher to the Lovers’ Arcana when finding Shadows in the wild.”**

With those last words, time crawls back to its proper pace, and with it’ reality, a loud ringtone echoes in the corridor, startling both teenagers from their moment, Uraraka hastily getting her phone out of her pocket.

“Oh crap, it’s my parents,” Uraraka says, her eyes wide as she spots the caller’s ID, “They must be worried sick, especially after what happened; W- what do I do now…”

“T- tell them the truth?” Izuku says, his own eyes wide with worry, “I mean… they are your parents, right? Just tell them that-”

“A boy accidentally passed his Quirk on me at university?” Uraraka replies in a strangled tone. “I can’t tell them that, they’ll probably think the worst possible outcome, which means that they’ll either ground me for life, or worse, force us into a shotgun marriage, we have to think of something!”

Izuku sputters at Uraraka’s words, his cheeks colouring a bright red as the phone keeps on ringing.

Before he can say or do anything he might regret later, Izuku is literally saved by the bell as a loud horn blares in the corridors, signalling the incoming start of the tournament quarterfinals.

“Crap, they’re already starting?” Uraraka curses, her eyes only getting wider, “Ok, fine, I’ll deal with this myself, you go out there and… be amazing! I’ll try to invent something about my Persona.”

“Are you s-” Izuku begins, only for a second horn to blare loudly, Uraraka already shoving him away from her, her phone still mercilessly ringing.

“You wasted enough time here with me; Go now!” Uraraka grits out, a small smirk appearing on her face even as dread keeps mounting inside her stomach with every unanswered ring of her phone. “I can handle this by myself for now, now go, can’t have you get late to your own match before I can kick your butt in the finals, go!”

Izuku nervously chuckles at her words, his legs finally working as he marches forward, leaving his friend behind as she finally answers her call.

He turns the corner, Uraraka getting out of sight as he crosses a corner, heading forward the challenges to come, holding his head up high.

 _“Don’t worry Uraraka,”_ He thinks as he powerwalks, his own nerves settling as he prepares himself for the match at hand, grim determination settling over him even as sweat starts pooling on his brow. _“I will not let you down, I’m going to march on and face you in-”_

**“THERE YOU ARE.”**

Izuku freezes mid-step, his thought process crashing to a halt, the smell of burning flesh instantly assaulting his nostrils as the inhuman sound comes directly from behind a corner.

A large hand ~~,~~ wreathed in flames, clutches at the wall, denting it in its grip, burning it, as… _something_ steps over the threshold; hooves clanging against the floor as the creature finally comes into sight.

The figure is vaguely humanoid, massive, taking over the entire corridor with a large, bare muscular chest, a grizzly hole right in its middle.

Blue flames are wreathing the creature’s upper body like armour, his massive arms bathed in the burning inferno, the stench of burning flesh getting more and more overpowering by the second.

The head of a bull is standing atop the creature’s massive neck, a crown of flames perched atop it like a halo, intertwining with its horns.

Flaming wings erupt off his back, taking what little space his body was not occupying in the cramped corridor, completely walling off Izuku’s path.

 _“Of all the times and places…”_ Izuku grumbles under his breath, eyes fixed on the figure in front of him, on the familiar mask covering it’s beastly visage, “ _What do I do now?!”_

 **“I AM A SHADOW, THE TRUE SELF,”** the monster, the Shadow Izuku now realizes, bellows, yellow eyes glaring at Izuku with burning hatred. “ **I’VE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU. INSECTS, ANTS WHO DARED OPPOSE MY GRAND DESIGN, WHO DARE TO RUIN MY DREAM, MY MASTERPIECE! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO SURPASS THAT FOOL, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO SHOW _HIM_ EXACTLY WHAT WE WERE CAPABLE OF, AND YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN A STEPPINGSTONE IN OUR PATH, AND YET NOTHING HAS BEEN GOING ACCORDING TO MY PLANS!”**

As the creature its raving, one fist smashing against the wall, cracking it in its impact, the monster’s flames grow brighter and bluer as it throws a tantrum right in front of Izuku, unrestrained Id taken to its logical extreme.

Izuku hastily takes several steps back, the temperature in the corridor getting hotter and hotter as the Shadow’s ire keeps on rising, the monster trashing in the enclosed space.

 **“MY WRATH IS BURNING WITHIN MY VERY SOUL, BEGGING ME TO UNLEASH IT ONTO SOMEONE; SOMEONE MUST PAY FOR WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO ME”** the Shadow continues, trashing in the small Stadium’s corridor, smashing his fists against the walls around him, Izuku flinching with each strike.

 **“BUT I CAN’T FIND THAT FOOL ANYWHERE IN THIS WRETCHED STADIUM, TRYING TO COMFORT ME AS IF WE’RE FRIENDS,”** The shadow continues with a growl, **“AND I CAN’T FIND THAT FAILURE WHO LOST ME THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY; THAT FAILURE WHO KEEPS ON NOT LISTENING TO ANYTHING I SAY, WHO LOST THIS FESTIVAL AND REACHED HIS LIMITS LIKE I TOLD HIM HE WOULD HAVE** **-”**

 **“BUT I’VE FOUND YOU,”** The shadow finishes, mask turning toward Izuku, a golden glint beneath its eyeholes. **“THE ONE WHO TOOK MY VICTORY FROM ME!”**

“T- Todoroki?” Izuku asks, almost on instinct, eyes widening as the creature only seems to grow angrier at the name, “No… no, wait, this… this doesn’t sound right, this is nothing like him, who are-”

With an inhuman howl, the creature lunges, flames erupting off him, the monster turning into a ball of fire as it dashes straight toward Izuku, claws outstretched.

In the fraction of a second as he sees fiery death rushing toward him, Izuku ponders his next course of action.

The corridor is narrow, barely containing the lumbering form of the Shadow as the wall of fire rushes toward him.

Izuku is walled off from the path in front of him, his only chances now being to either fight back and hope to call out one of his smaller Personas out fast enough to survive the attack ~~,~~ or retreat to the corridor he has just come from.

Leading the monster right to Uraraka.

He doesn’t even have to think about it as a yellow card swiftly appears in hand. Obariyon promptly erupts from the familiar blue flames, the fuzzy Persona floating mid-air in between Izuku and the rampaging Shadow, taking in the brunt of the attack.

Izuku hisses in pain as he feels his own flesh singe Obariyon, their resistance to fire barely managing to contain the rampaging power of the Shadow’s flames, his Persona’s little paws yet still enough to stop the Shadow’s large fist from striking Izuku.

“Trying to burn Master, aren’t we?” The Persona’s childish voice asks, even as his fur starts producing steam under the immense heat irradiating from the Shadow, “That’s not nice you know?”

 **“PATHETIC FREAK,”** The Shadow bellows, **“MOVE ASIDE OR YOU’LL BE SCORCHED ALONGSIDE THAT BRAT!”**

“How rude!” Obariyon yells in a scandalized tone, his cheeks puffing up in anger. “Why don’t you take a little time out, maybe you’ll feel better later- _Muzzle Shot_!”

Obariyon spits out something from his large mouth, straight against the Shadow’s face, the large black phlegm ball splashing ~~straight~~ against the Shadow’s mask with a disgusting squelch.

 **“DISGUSTING CREATURE!”** The Shadow begins growling as he swats Obariyon away with a slap of his free hand, Izuku not even feeling the impact as Obariyon darts back toward him with a yippie. **“HOW DARE YOU SOIL MY-”**

The Shadow’s voice dies in his maw, his flames dimming, fading into nothing alongside the wall of hellfire standing in front of Izuku, leaving only the muscular, still massive form of the minotaur like monster standing in the middle of the corridor.

“This is our chance, Master!” Obariyon chirps out as he straps himself onto Izuku’s back, the young man barely feeling the weight as he stares at his opponent in amazement. “His powers are silenced, let’s topple him and perform an All-Out Attack!”

Before Izuku can say anything in response, a horn blares, reminding Izuku of where he is ~~,~~ and what he still needs to do.

“M- maybe another time, I’m getting late for my match!” Izuku stammers out, eyes wide as he rushes at the silenced Shadow, the monster rising his right fist to strike him down as Izuku hurries towards him.

Izuku hastily slides down between the gap between the monster’s massive hooves, gliding under the creature before hastily getting back to his feet once he has passed it.

He starts running, fleeing toward what he hopes should be the Arena’s entrance as the Shadow barely hesitates before giving chase.

“Running away? Like chickens?!” Obariyon grumbles in an outraged tone, clawing at Izuku’s back. “That sucker will not leave us alone till he receives a good trashing Master, just let me at him!”

 **“-AK HERE, YOU COWARDS!”** The Shadow bellows, his voice returning alongside his scorching flames, Izuku’s flight only getting faster, more desperate at the sound coming from behind him, as if he had the hounds of hell at his heels, **“I WILL GET YOU, AND THAT DISGUSTING FURBALL TOO!”**

“Disgusting? Disgusting?!” Obariyon shouts from Izuku’s back, turning toward the raging Shadow, “You awful old man, I’ll let you know I’m nothing but cute and fluffy!”

Years of having to deal with bullies have trained Izuku in the fine craft of running away. He never looked back, concentrated as he was on the path forward, least something worst appeared right in front of him as the young man tries to get as much distance as he can from the monster behind him with every single step.

His eyes are wide, adrenalin cruising through his veins as his heart keeps on thumping wildly in his chest, the heat at his back getting nearer and hotter, right as he turns a sharp corner, the proverbial bright light at the end of the tunnel appearing in front of him, signalling the entrance to the arena’s grounds.

 _“I might not want to lead that Shadow to Uraraka…”_ Izuku’s brain manages to think in those last moments before he crosses the Arena’s threshold.

_“But that doesn’t mean I’m not against the idea of leading him anywhere.”_

* * *

“Where the hell are you, Midoriya?” Yaoyorozu grumbles under her breath as she stands alone on her side of the large ring.

She's warily eyeing the restless crowds sitting all over the stadium, the audience demanding for the start of the match as they get louder and louder with every passing second, her opponent, her vice president nowhere in sight.

“Well then, ladies and gentlefolks, it seems we have an unexpected turn of events in our hands.” She can hear Present Mic announce loudly from his booth. “It’s plain for anyone to see, that Midoriya Izuku is a no show for today’s event. The young man must have probably gotten a classic case of cold feet at the last second and is probably hiding somewhere in shame, what a pity…”

“There he is!” Yaoyorozu shouts, loud enough she’s pretty sure even Present Mic heard him from his booth, as a tension she didn’t even know she was feeling leaves shoulder.

Izuku enters the arena under the crowds’ rumbles, almost leaping out of the stadium’s entrance, rushing toward the central ring as if his life depended on it.

“Just in time there, young man, another minute and I would have been forced to-” Midnight, the umpire, begins as she saunters toward the still running Izuku, only for him to completely ignore her as he surpasses her at top speed.

“Uh?”

 _Something_ erupts from the mouth of the tunnel, howling wildly as he chases after Izuku, leaving a trail of fire behind the monster’s wake as he barrels toward the ring.

 **“STOP RUNNING, YOU BRAT!”** The ~~…~~ creature bellows as he rushes onward, the grass around the arena’s ring burning and wilting under each of his steps. **“THE MORE YOU RUN THE MORE OF MY FIRE YOU WILL GET WHEN I GET YOU!”**

Izuku jumps on the ring, chased after by the monster at his heels right as he spots a stunned Yaoyorozu right on it as he runs toward her at top speed, a glint appearing in his eyes.

“Quick, a megaphone, now!” Izuku yells out, Yaoyorozu coming out of her daze before hastily producing what he had asked, a large megaphone appearing in her hands from her cleavage as Izuku finally reaches her, grabbing it in one hand under the stunned, confused looks of everyone around him.

Izuku stops, turning toward his opponent, standing his ground between a still confused Yaoyorozu and the monster chasing him, the Shadow stopping on the other side of the ring, steam erupting off his mask’s holes.

 **“THERE. FINALLY. YOU STOPPED RUNNING.”** The monster grits out, winded after the run, golden eyes bloodshot with rage behind the mask even as he tries to catch back his breath, **“YOU MUST BE… SMARTER THAN YOU LOOK-”**

“O- or… Or m- maybe you’re the one dumber than you look, e- ever thought about t- that?” Izuku spits back in between gulps of air as a smirk appears on his face even as the monster in front of him burns brighter, “I- I m- mean… I w- wasn’t e- expecting you t- to… chase me a- all the w- way here…”

 **“WHAT?”** The shadows growls, eyes turning around the stadium’s large, open arena, and the massive audience gathered all around them.

Izuku can tell exactly the second when the Shadow finally connects the dots, as he raises Yaoyorozu’s megaphone to his lips, and with all the voice he could muster bellows…

“VILLAIN ATTACK!” Izuku yells at the top of his lungs, the only thing he can think of screaming at the moment, surrounded as he is by so many heroes and professors and hero students, his eyes wide as the Shadow in front of him only grows more feral.

The sound echoes around the arena ~~,~~ ; reverberating, echoing, the megaphone loud enough Izuku is pretty sure even his mother would be able to hear it back in their apartment, had she not been probably watching all of this happen on live tv.

 **“YOU SCUM!”** The Shadow bellows, his rage overflowing as he unleashes a cone of flames toward him, Izuku’s eyes widening as he steels himself, right in front of a still unmoving Yaoyorozu, her own eyes widening as she sees the flames coming toward them, stunned frozen as Obariyon readies himself to take on more of the Shadow’s fire…

Only for a wall of concrete to erupt upward from the ring’s pavement, walling off the Shadow’s attack right as a concrete dome erupts from all around him, trapping the shadow under it before he can even react.

“Didn’t we get security just for this?” Cementoss seems to be the first one to have gotten his bearings back, rushing toward Izuku and Yaoyorozu, Midnight in tow “What is a villain doing here, and so close to our students?!”

Before Izuku can even open his mouth, a column of fire explodes upward from Cementoss’ dome as the Shadow flies upward on his flaming wings, a ball of flames erupting all around it, like a red, angry sun in the middle of the arena.

 **“MY POWER CANNOT BE CONTAINED!”** The Shadow bellows, the circumference of his fireball exploding outward, even as stone pillars erupt from the earth below toward him, shattering against the sphere of fire, **“I’LL SHOW YOU ALL THE TRUE EXTENT OF MY BURNING CONVICTION!”**

The people on the stadium’s seats start screaming, panic overcoming them as they attempt to rush away from the flames, almost trampling on each other

Then, like nothing, the flames are snuffed out in an instant, the monster’s wings flapping on as he finds himself once again deprived of his flames.

“What the hell are all you idiots doing?!” Aizawa yells out from the announcer booth, voice reverberating around the stadium.

His tired eyes are glaring from his prison of bandages toward the supposed villain, the panicking crowds seemingly quieting down at his words, “You are pro heroes, right? There’s a villain here, so teachers, heroes, do your damn job and get the civilians and the students to safety before getting back here and help us deal with this villain!”

“Truer words have never been spoken, Mummy Man!” Present Mic yells out, now standing on top of the presenters’ booth with a grin on his face, looking toward the flying monster in front of him. “Speaking of words, headphone warning for all our beloved followers listening to this podcast back home, because I’m afraid things are about to get LOUD!”

A long, loud _YEAH_ erupts from Present Mic’s mouth, crashing against the winged man bull in full, a growl coming out of his mouth as he falters mid-air, barely stopping as starts rushing toward the presenter’s booth at full speed.

Several gunshots ring out in the stadium, the creature wailing in pain as his back is skewered by Snipe’s bullets. The Shadow turns toward the source, right as he finds the teacher hunched on his seat, gun in his hands and already reloading it.

“I reckon this is an exclusive party, pardner.” The cowboy says, as another _YEAH_ departs from Present Mic toward the flying monster, “And I don’t remember you on any of our guests’ lists. So, you better leave the premises, or I’ll be forced to ask for security to intervene ~~…~~ ”

The Shadow wails, diverting his flight toward Snipe, only for more bullets to fly toward him as the monster expertly dodges all six of them mid-air, getting closer and closer to the hero, only for a black hole to burst open right below him, sucking in the Shadow’s large body.

“As if I’d let you hurt one of my colleagues that easily!” the Space Hero: Thirteen yells, one finger of his suit open as he keeps on sucking in the monster, “Never again!”

 **“ANNOYING FLIES!”** the monster grunts, more gunshots ringing, followed by a crimson lance, striking him straight against his left shoulder, an inhuman wail erupting from his maw as more and more heroes join in with the UA professors, taking pot shot at the flying monsters.

 **“THIS… THIS IS NOTHING!”** The shadow bellows, flames suddenly coming back to him, **“ _HELLFIRE_ _HEAT WAVE_!”**

The air surrounding the Shadow, already heated to uncomfortable levels by his presence, explodes into a raging inferno as the heroes nearby are hit by the full blast of the attack, scrambling away from the monster as the less fortunate of them scream in pain under the prolonged assault.

Cement pillars erupt from beneath the monster, slamming against him as he is sent flying upward as Cementoss hurries at his colleagues’ defence, the Shadow’s attack ending with a growl.

 **“YOU AGAIN!”** The shadow yells, more pillars erupting from the first one, aiming toward him as another YEAH is screamed at full volume against the Shadow, the monster’s anger, unfocused, switching between each new target seemingly at random.

Cementoss grimaces, an impressive feat for someone whose head is literally a block of stone, as he keeps on unleashing his Quirk at the monster as Midnight’s whip surges forward at his side, wrapping against one of his hooves as she tries to pull him downward.

Flames erupt from the monster’s mask, straight toward the two teachers below, Cementoss quickly raising a wall in between himself and the monster, Midnight quickly easing her grip on her whip as she huddles beneath it with him.

“ _Malaqua_!”

A burst of water erupts from the ring below, a yowl of pain erupting from the monster as he’s hit in full, his flames dimming momentarily before blasting upward once more, his attention back to Izuku, still standing in the middle of the ring with a new persona out.

“What the hell are you still doing here!” Midnight yells from her hiding spot, right as the monster switches targets once again. “Get the hell out of the ring and get back to your class or you’re both going to get killed today!”

Flames blast from the monster’s fists, the creature getting closer and closer to a stunned Izuku, his eyes widening as he sees the creature rush straight at him...

Only for his eyes to narrow, ever so slightly, dodging to the side as his persona disappears in a flash of blue flames, revealing the person hiding behind it.

Cannon fire rages, the metal ball hitting the monster straight in the stomach, below the large hole already in his chest as the monster cries in pain as he is rocketed away from the ring.

“Get your paws off my vice president!” Yaoyorozu yells, a large cannon at her side and already resupplying it with more gunpowder and another cannonball, a sheepish look on her face as she does so. “God, that sounded way cornier than I expected...”

 **“YOU! I KNOW YOU! YOU ARE ALSO TO BLAME!”** The monster shrieks as the cannon ball starts melting within his fire, hate-filled eyes now trained on Yaoyorozu as the young woman barely has time to reload her cannon before he’s already rushing toward her.

“Crap, _Malaqua_!” Izuku yells, his Persona coming back out in a flash as another burst of water erupting from his Persona’s cup, the Shadow dodging it mid-air as he rushes toward Yaoyorozu, still busy with her cannon.

“Did someone call for security?!”

Out of nowhere, a giant woman appears, swatting at the flying monster with one, large hand’s unexpected strike launches the monster toward the stadium’s seats with an enraged scream.

“Lacquered Chain Prison!” Kamui Woods yells in turn, his arm growing and engulfing the monster in branches, only for flames to once again erupt from his prisoner as the hero screams in pain as the monster easily escapes from his confines, surging upward in the air, straight toward Mt. Lady.

“Ah, never send a matchstick to do a giant woman’s job, watch this!” Mt Lady giggles, clapping her hands in front of her, squashing the monster between them with a sadistic snicker. “See, executed with grace and sty-”

Mt Lady hisses in pain as fire engulfs her hands, forcing her to drop the monster down, right as Death Arms leaps off the stadium’s seats, enormous fists aimed at the monster back as he clutches at him as the creature bucks wildly in the air, trying to shake the hero off.

**“YOU’RE ALL BUT ANTS, STANDING AGAINST THE RAGING SUN! BEGONE!”**

Another fireball envelops the flying shadow, red and blue flames mixing into a multi-coloured sun, its heat scorching he grass below as it blinds the surrounding heroes as the few YEAHs, gunshots and cannonballs still aimed at it melt against its radiance, before they could even reach the Shadow within.

“What in tarnation!” Snipe curses, firing blindly into the raging inferno of the Shadow’s attack, not even one of Thirteen’s black holes managing to put a dent into the thing.

 **“I SHALL ERASE YOU ALL, I SHALL ERASE THE PROOF OF MY FAILURES FROM THE FACE OF THIS BITTER EARTH!”** The shadow bellows madly, rising upward toward the sky, away from anyone’s reach, as the ball’s fire expands outward, turning brighter and bigger, obscuring the sun above, larger than the stadium itself.

“Oh boy…” Present Mic mutters, eyes trained on the large ball of fire looming right above them, right before turning down toward the still scrambling civilians, the two students still standing on the ring below, and his colleagues as both heroes and teachers.

Everyone stares up in horror, all watching impotently as the inevitable happens, frozen in shock under the threat of incoming, devastating attack, a sombre grimace appearing on Present Mic's lips at the sight.

“It seems… it seems its curtain call for today, dear listeners…”

“This… this is not what I expected…” Izuku mutters, his eyes wide as he stares at the large orb of death above him. He’s frozen solid, barely registering as Yaoyorozu grab at his arm, trying to drag him away from the ring, “I… I thought the heroes could handle it… I thought we could handle it… He’s just a Shadow after all… I had no Idea…”

 **“RAGING ASSAULT,”** the monster grits out from within the large ball of fire and heat, loud enough for everyone still left in the arena to hear him, **“HELL MINEFIELD, SUNFALL VARIANT!”**

The villain surges down, right toward the ground below, ready to obliterate the ring in one special move, ready to lay waste to the ground below as fear claws at everyone’s heart as the large, gigantic fireball descends toward them at top speed, all hope lost.

Until…

“HAVE NO FEAR!” a familiar voice bellows, jumping high from outside the arena, upward, toward the descending sun, skeletal form turning giant in an instant as he leaps forward, “FOR I, AM HERE!”

 **“SHOWING UP TOO LATE, YOU BASTARD!”** the Shadow screams, the range of his fireball growing brighter and larger, even as All Might arrives right in between him and the ground below, **“BEGONE, OR BE SQUASHED LIKE THE ANNOYING BUG YOU ARE!”**

“AND LET YOU HURT MY PRECIOUS STUDENTS?! MY ESTEEMED COLLEAGUES!” All Might bellows, now inches away from the falling sun, arms crossed into an X shape in front of his chest. “WHAT KIND OF TEACHER DO YOU TAKE ME FOR!”

“CAROLINA…”

Time slows to a crawl for anyone but Izuku, wide eyes fixed on the scene happening right above him; His mentor, his childhood hero, his teacher, his predecessor, standing alone in between everyone below him, and the monster willing to hurt them.

A golden glow encases All Might, right as one man turns into eight, so familiar figures, each of them turning in turn into two, sixteen people floating as one, against the fury of the falling sun.

Time snaps back to its proper place, the vision disappearing as sixteen men get back into one, as their combined strength explodes into one, a single word.

“… SMASH!”

Wind pressure erupts from his strike, both his hands chopping in the air at point blank range, easily dissipating the Shadow’s flames as it rushes upward, breaking the ball he was shrouded in as it reaches the monster’s empty chest, a wail erupting from his maw as the Smash hits him in full, blasting him off, away from the stadium below with a piercing scream as he is hurled away by the strength of All Might’s super move, becoming but a small pinprick of light in the clear sky.

Without even a huff, All Might easily descends back to the ground below, everyone’s stunned stares fixed onto him.

“WELL THEN, IT SEEMS THAT’S TAKEN CARE OFF NOW!” All Might triumphantly smiles, one fist raised in the air, reality crashing back down on everyone, their knees buckling as some of the students, some of the civilians, even some of the pro heroes fall to their knees after the brush with death they all, so closely avoided.

“CALM DOWN CITIZENS, THE VILLAIN IS DEFEATED, WE’RE ALL SAFE NOW!”

* * *

“What… the fuck was that!”

Shigaraki is fuming, hands scratching at his neck as he glares at

“Some third-rate Villain shows up, trying to kill that annoying brat, trying to destroy that wretched school…” he growls, his eyes fixed on the screen before him, showing a triumphant All Might as the crowd cheer on all around him. “And that bastard shows up not even a couple minutes later and defeats him with one single move?! After I used my Quirk on him?! After the Nomu hurt him?!”

“This… this has to be fake, this has to be some sort of… of conspiracy,” Shigaraki raves on, wide yellow eyes glaring at the screen in front of him, hands hitching to turn it into dust, “UA planted that villain to get some good publicity, there is no other way!”

“Mmmmm, I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Shigaraki Tomura,” The man behind the screen hums in a somewhat pleased tone, the screen now showing a crying, green haired young man being comforted by All Might himself, right in the middle of the large, scorched ring.

“Nedzu might be a conniving rat, but not even he would try something like this… on anything but their third years Sports Festival.” The man behind the screen continues in a pensive tone, “No, this seems like a… genuine display of power, so fortuitously handed to him, right when he needed to show the world he was still the strong, reliable symbol of peace he’s always been.”

“So unsightly ~~.~~ ” The man behind the screen grumbles, the image cutting back to Present Mic and Aizawa, back in their presenters’ booth, the blonde hero currently applying eyedrops to his colleague’s eyes.

“Would you stand still, it’s not my fault your hands aren’t…” Present Mic grumbles, only for him to suddenly jerk back in his place, eyedrops bottle falling to the ground as he turns back toward the camera.

“W- well then, ladies and g- gentlefolks, I- It s- seems, d- dear listeners, t- that-” A still shaken Present Mic coughs as Aizawa elbows him to the side with his cast, getting back his bearings in the process, “Ow, that hurt!”

“Get a grip on yourself,” Aizawa drawls in a bored tone as Present Mic grumbles something in response under his breath as he turns back toward the camera, a winning smile now on his face.

“… Anyway, yes, as I was saying, it seems everything is fine now, no need to worry, All Might has quickly and easily dispatched the threat, and our security team has been tasked with retrieving the villain, whatever he might be.

“But as our hero would say, have no fear, dear listeners, the police as well as several heroes attending in the audience have also offered to retrieve the villain in whatever state he might be!” Present Mic continues, his tone getting more confident and bombastic by the second.

“As for the paying audience down in our stadium, worrying about having to miss the rest of the event,” Present Mic keeps on saying, slowly getting back into the swing of things, “Once everything has been gotten back to normal, we’ll easily get back to the scheduled programming!”

“So, sit back, relax, and enjoy this… hopefully small break. But now, a word from our Sponsors!” Present Mic concludes with a jovial tone, as if nothing had happened, the screen cutting back to a commercial break.

“Poor little UA, so many… incidents just this year, even during the event that was supposed to be their revival…” The man behind the screen mumbles, the TV Screen shifting into the image of some people buying fruits at a grocery store. “So focused on the enemies at their gates, and yet so blind to the snakes they are nurturing within their walls…”

“Was that… was that one of our spies in UA, Sensei?!” Shigaraki asks in a confused tone, “Did you order an attack on the Sports Festival, before we could replenish our ranks? I thought I was supposed to be the leader of this League, why wasn’t I aware of it?!”

“Oh, I never said he was one of ours, Shigaraki,” The man behind the screen chuckles darkly. “Hero society is a cancer festering within itself, and we are not the only ones who have realized that. Over the decades, countless organizations and individuals have risen and fallen like the tides, and countless more will rise and fall in the eternal cycle of this world, trying to break it or nurture it with their schemes and actions…”

“That, was probably the result of someone else’s great scheme or machination.” The man behind the screen continues with a pensive hum, “So many cogs turning, so many pawns moving… I wonder what will the future hold for us…”

“So, what now?” Shigaraki grumbles, his hands finally stopping in their relentless scratching, “We have competition? That’s what you’re saying, Sensei? Our next move sounds easy enough to me, we’ll just have to kill them like all the rest before they get in our way…”

“Kill our competition? No no no, why would you ever suggest such a thing?” The man behind the screen chuckles darkly. “No, I’ve seen that kind of… of Villain, for lack of a better word. They’ve always been the same, yet they’ve always been different, but they all always have one thing in common...”

“They are all slaves to their powers, to their own emotions, to their own, twisted desires, so easily manipulated, so easily-” The man behind the screen hums in a pleased tone. “Swayed to one’s side, especially when you can control the one who’s pulling the strings, so to speak...”

“Oh…” Shigaraki breaths out, a deranged smile appearing on his face. “So what you’re saying, Sensei-”

“What I’m saying, is that all we’ll need to do, is find a way to…” The man behind the screen pauses, as if is trying to find the right word to say, “Oh yes, find a way to… _convince_ the leader of this new, little gang to join our own side, ply them into our perfect pawns, so that they’ll do everything we’ll tell them to do, so they’ll do everything in order to achieve our goals…”

“No matter the cost.”

* * *

“Alright, headcount, who was the cretin who ended up going berserk in the middle of a crowded stadium rigth on national fucking television?”

A chorus of groans of protests erupts all around the campus grounds at their leader’s words, as many a hero tries to discretely give their identification away from prying ears.

“It’s clear none of us was responsible for this… mess,” Another hero groans after all members are finally accounted for, squelching sounds being heard across the link “But Gods, can someone explain to me why the hell does UA need a literal swamp on the campus’ ground? My costume is getting ruined just by standing here.”

“If he was not one of ours, what was that, the presence our enlightened brother noticed right before the start of the tournament?” Another hero points out, he himself busy in his own search on the opposite side of the grounds, “That sounded a bit too… coherent for some random shadow crossing the barrier.”

“No, that was smaller, younger, weaker, if… remarkably similar,” The man in question grumbles, shying away from his own search party, “This one was stronger, and far older, as if he’s been here acclimating to this reality for years, rather than simply breaking out and rampaging the second he was out, taking over the form of the original.”

“That was one of ours then, just… not one of the ones we know about,” the oldest of the lot points out, “Which would only mean-”

“An Apostate you’re saying?” the informal leader of the group mumbles out, deep in thought, “A Joker that didn’t get instructed into the fold of the families, and one who has managed to remain undetected till today? That sounds… implausible-”

“It could be the leak we’re looking for,” Another heroine grumbles, “Maybe he was just, I don’t know… one of those brats getting angry at losing the festival, or maybe one of their helicopter parents-”

“Guys…” Another voice chirps out in an uncertain tone, interrupting everyone conversation “Not to interrupt you or anything, but I… I think I’ve just found Endeavour… And he seems a bit on the rough side, does anyone here know any first aid or-”

“That’s what you’re worried about, Sister?” the informal leader of their group groans, “We have a potentially feral apostate to find, and some massive damage control to make least people started making some inconvenient question, why should we even care about-”

“Wait wait wait, this is important, trust me!” Sister T hastily continues, “I was the only one tall enough to actually see where All Might sent our prodigal brother flying, and what do I find here, if no one else but THE number two hero Endeavour, right in a crater where the supposed villain was supposed to be, miles away from the stadium?”

“Wait, Endeavour found our misguided brother before you? That might be a hassle to cover up…” The leader sighs tiredly, the beginning of a stress headache forming behind her temples.

“Oh no no no, sister, I don’t think you’re getting it right,” Sister T points out with a nervous chuckle, “I’m not saying Endeavour found the misguided apostate who attacked the UA Stadium…”

“I’m saying Endeavour **is** the misguided apostate who attacked the UA Stadium…”

* * *

An empty bowl clutters to the ground as the short, old man in the dingy apartment jumps off his couch as he stares at the images appearing on his screen, eyes wide as he stares back at the screen in front of him, still on commercials, quickly switching stations to the closest news channel he could find, a play by play replay of the incident already being analysed and discussed by some pundits.

“Oh Toshi,” The old man grumbles, his eyes turning soft as he witnesses once again the young man rushing outside the arena, his Persona on his back and the large, flaming shadow chasing him closely behind, “I’d love to blame you for this one, but this… this is on me, this is all my fault...”

He sighs, shuffling away from the TV screen, suddenly feeling the weight of all his years on his narrow, wizened shoulders.

“I should have told you, I should have told you about everything after… after everything that had happened, especially before you got yourself an apprentice before he could go down the same path Nana did ~~…~~ ” He continues, grumbling to himself in the small, empty room all around him, his fist tightening.

“But I… I can fix this,” He grumbles, a spark of something igniting behind his eyes, a fire he thought it had gone away for good returning, stronger than ever before. “Yes, yes, I can… I can help the boy, before more trouble finds him before you’re not there anymore to fix all of his messes… yes, I can do it… **we** can do it, there’s… there’s still time, the year is still young, nothing too terrible has happened yet, yes, yes…”

He hops onto one of his kitchen’s stools, blue flames erupting at his side, a spectral form appearing from within it, floating beside him with a melancholic smile.

“Once more onto the breach, old friend…” The old man cannot help but chuckle, the spectral form hovering over the ground as he floats toward a nearby table while grabbing an half empty pen, and a familiar paper, one he had always tried hard to ignore, to forget, across all his years as a retired hero, and bringing it toward the old man.

“Yes, we can still… We can still stop what’s about to happen…” The old man mutters, his shoulder easing slightly, “The boy… the boy is still young, and is already getting himself some confidants from what I’m seeing, already getting himself some teammates for the fights to come… Yes, I can… We can fix it all this this time… We **will** fix it all, yes…”

“No matter what it’ll cost me this time around.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, my thanks to my Beta Reader SmashingSkunk53.
> 
> After this turn of events, we do have to wonder, if that was Endeavor...
> 
> Where in the world is Todoroki Shoto?
> 
> (With University picking back up and finally getting a beta reader expect chapters happening around once a week ya'll BTW).


	17. Fool Arcana: Rank V; Emperor Arcana: Rank I; Story Event: Midoriya VS Yaoyorozu.

“Ladies and gentlefolk, welcome back to what will be probably be remembered as THE most exciting UA Sports Festival of the decade!” Present Mic comes back on screen, a wide grin on his face, alone in his presenter’s booth.

“As usual, I’m your host for the day the Voice Hero: Present Mic, and I come to you with some updates on the Villain attack we have fortunately managed to repel in a timely manner!”

The image changes, a large, smoking crater appearing on screen, several heroes and police officers huddled around it, a large, dark splatter coated all around it.

“It seems All Might’s attack has managed to completely destroy the villain’s body!” Present Mic continues as one of the Heroes on-screen, Mt Lady, notices the camera and winks seductively at it. “The villain’s disappearance, coupled with the other similarities with the other, monstrous, artificial villain who attacked the USJ, makes us believe the two attacks were seemingly interconnected with each other.”

Change of scene, this time showing an artist rendition of the USJ Nomu, as well as the Shadow who attacked the Sports Festival, several red circles spread on both pictures to underline the alleged similarities between the two.

“However, thanks to our faculty and All Might’s timely intervention, we have once again managed to overcome yet monstrosity this League of Villains will ever think of throwing at us, and with no causalities to speak of!” Present Mic continues, the image switching back to him, his face sobering a little.

“On a more somber note, we have to signal a couple injuries, first among some of the pro heroes caught in the initial blast of the villain attack, as well as the Number 2 hero, Endeavor, who has been found in critical condition by a member of the security detail after the end of the villain attack.”

A half empty bowl of meat clutters to the floor, spilling its contents on the musty, half charred carpet below, as the television’s volume is instantly raised.

“It appears the villain has assaulted the Pro Hero in his own VIP Booth during the end of the cavalry battle and has then hidden him from prying eyes before attempting to assault one of our students.” Present Mic continues, an image of the devastated, charred VIP Booth Number 2 coming on screen. “We still don’t know the dynamics of such a clash, dear listeners, due to Endeavor’s still unresponsive state, but we can all assume The Number Two hero must have fought tooth and nail against his aggressor!”

“But do not worry, dear listeners, thanks to the timely intervention of our paramedic teams, Endeavor has been promptly shipped toward one of our affiliated hospitals, where he’s expected to make a full recovery!” Present Mic continues, his jovial tone back. “And now, without further ado-”

The television is muted, the lone figure in the dingy apartment humming in thought, as Yaoyorozu’s and Midoriya’s pictures appear on the muted screen.

“The old man managed to survive another one,” The young man mumbles, tired eyes fixed on the screen.

“What a pity…”

He gets up from his musty couch, grabbing the discarded bowl, a groan escaping his stitched mouth as he looks at the stain his blunder just left on the revolting carpet.

“Still.” He says in a pensive tone, straightening up as he heads toward his dingy kitchen counter with another hum. “This League of Villains… I thought they were just another street gang, and yet the really made a number on the old man if he’s the one being forced into an hospital this time, and it’s not even my birthday.”

He drops the bowl in his sink with a chuckle, the poor thing joining in a sea of half broken, irreparably stained cutlery and dishes.

A glint appears behind the young man’s eyes as one of his hands lights up in warm, blue flames, his eyes staring transfixed within it, completely ignoring the unpleasant buzzing sensation he was feeling from his dead, scarred nerves.

“Why, I might consider joining them myself…”

* * *

“You… You can’t be serious!” Aizawa growls from his private room, bleary eyes glaring at the small mammal’s hologram right in front of him. “We need to postpone this farce by at least another day, Nedzu! A villain almost blew up our students and our paying audience and I can already hear Ectoplasm’s legal department crying over all the lawsuits we’ll probably going to get after this, I don’t think continuing the festival without a proper investigation will-”

“Oh, I am quite serious, I’m afraid,” Nedzu says with a squeak, his hologram transmitted all the way from the Third Years’ Exclusive Stadium, “You more than others should understand how important the Sports Festival is for our students’ futures. The festival will continue, whatever you or anyone else says about it.”

“But…”

“No buts. All Might defeated the villain, and I have all the information I need about this incursion to know exactly what happened,” Nedzu

“The children…” Aizawa shoots back in a physically pained tone, “We can’t keep expecting them to suffer under all of this stress and traumas even pro heroes would find difficult to handle…”

“Oh, but Aizawa,” Nedzu buts in with a smirk, “Weren’t you the one spouting off about how trauma and real danger builds one character as a hero or something? Our students will only come out stronger from this.”

“That was…” Aizawa says, seemingly at a loss for words. “That was a completely different scenario; these students can’t even drink legally you can’t expect them to-”

“Oh, come on Aizawa I’m sure they’ll do just fine, it’s not like your class did any worse after what happened to Young Shirakumo, didn’t it?” Nedzu continues in a dismissive tone, only to wince the second the words leave his lips.

Aizawa sucks in his breath, his eyes sharpening, shrinking into pinpricks as he stares down the holographic rodent in front of him.

“No.” Aizawa grits out, his cast and bandages the only thing stopping him from tackling the hologram in front of him. “We did not do just fine, and you know it, you morally bankrupt rat.”

“And yet most of you have become successful pro heroes or even teachers back at your Alma Mater.” Nedzu butts in with a hum, “Still, I can see… I can see your point Eraserhead and our student’s mental health should indeed be one of our top priorities, especially given the… disastrous effect some of our students’ quirks seem to possess, so maybe a couple of… mandatory psychological evaluations might be in order.”

“Good thing we already have a licensed phycologist on staff, uh?”

* * *

“The show must go on, Ladies and Gentlefolks.” Present Mic’s voice echoes in the large stadium, “So, without further ado, here’s for the next match, and what a match is this going to be!”

The crowd cheers, the few heroes still out doing their job or still being tended for their burns barely denting its massive size or enthusiasm, the near-death experience from a couple hours before already gone and forgotten.

“In this corner, the Vice President of Class 1-A, the young man who managed to overcome every obstacle, Midoriya Izuku!”

Izuku takes a long, deep breath, his nerves and jitters settling momentarily as he focuses on the match at hand, tuning out the cheering crowds all around him.

He can still feel All Might’s eyes, coming from the tunnel behind him, peering at him like a hawk in his skeletal form. Near-death experience or not, he still made a promise to his mentor, of showing the world what he was capable of, and he was not going to give up on it.

“And in the other corner, Class 1-A’s very own class president, Yaoyorozu Momo!”

Yaoyorozu squares herself up on her own side of the ring, eyes narrowing as she stares Izuku down, a tense atmosphere hovering over the two.

“You’ve had a good run, but I’m afraid your journey ends here, Midoriya.” Yaoyorozu says in a cold tone, her jersey already opened. “I hope you’ll understand; I have too much to prove today to be defeated just on the quarter-finals of this tournament.”

“T- That makes two of us.” Izuku stammers out, one hand twitching at his side, ready to summon his next card, “A- and w- whatever happens, no hard feelings, ok?”

“AND BEGIN!”

“Sure!” Yaoyorozu yells, one hand already fishing in her cleavage as a gun begins to form within it.

“Persona! _Muzzle Shot_!” Izuku hastily yells, Obariyon familiar form erupting from his card as he leaps onward, a large gob of spit shooting off his mouth toward a wide-eyed Yaoyorozu.

She dodges to the side, the spit missing her by mere inches, her grip on the gun loosening before she can complete it, the handle cluttering to the floor as a second Muzzle Shot cruises towards her.

“Ew!” Yaoyorozu whines, sidestepping the glob of dark spit as it falls to the ground where she once stood, taking great care not to step on the attack’s first, disgusting stain. “How can something so cute be so gross!”

A third spit comes out of Obariyon’s mouth, the Persona floating idly in between Izuku and Yaoyorozu. Yaoyorozu’s eyes narrow slightly as a large tower shield is produced from her left arm, planting it in the ground in between herself and Obariyon, the large glob splattering harmlessly against it.

A fourth and fifth spit are shot out, each leaving not even a dent against Yaoyorozu’s protections as a worried frown appears on Izuku’s face.

“Alright, change of tactics, _Holy Arrow_!” Izuku commands his persona, yet another large ball of saliva erupting from Obariyon’s mouth, shining brightly as it collides against Yaoyorozu’s defence with an explosion of light, a dull ring echoing in the arena.

Yaoyorozu grits her teeth as she stands her ground, a second _Holy Arrow_ exploding against her tower shield as something is slowly produced off her exposed cleavage.

“Enough of that!” she yells as a third _Holly Arrow_ collides against her defenses, as she finally finishes to construct a flashbang with her Quirk, throwing it over her riot shield as Obariyon sucks more spit in for his next attack.

A startled yelp escapes Izuku as the light blinds him, a smirk appearing on Yaoyorozu’s lips as she drops the tower shield to the side, a large mallet quickly appearing in her hands.

Izuku’s eyes are scrunched, seemingly having stumbled to the floor after the explosion, his little monster nowhere to be seen.

With a confident smirk, Yaoyorozu dashes forward, mallet raised high in the air, aimed at her opponent’s exposed head.

“Gotcha!” Yaoyorozu cheers with a triumphant smile, the hammer bonking Izuku in the head with a dull thud.

Yaoyorozu’s cheer is short-lived however, as the mallet starts cracking and her eyes widening in horror as she feels _something_ dropping on her back, a huff escaping her mouth as she stumbles due to the added weight.

The mallet drops from her hands as Izuku remains seemingly untouched, if still blinded, Yaoyorozu taking a startled step back.

“Ah, your physical attacks have no power over us, woman!” Obariyon’s high pitched voice chirps from behind Yaoyorozu, the small demon crawling up her back. “As long as I’m here, no fire nor strikes shall ever harm my master ever again!”

“Get off me, you gremlin!” Yaoyorozu grits out, a small blush appearing on her face at the small creature’s invasive touch. Metal spikes shoot off her back, shredding her jersey as they fruitlessly attempt to stab at the piggyback demon on her back.

“Ah, missed me, too slow, that tickles, better luck next time!” the Persona mocks his opponent as he keeps slithering all over her back, dodging each spike even as they barely make a dent on his fuzzy body, “Now is my turn, _Sonic Punch_!”

Yaoyorozu grits her teeth in pain as the little monster’s punch manages to strike her in the back, a strangled yelp escaping her lips as a second punch rings out, her eyes narrowing at the still blinded opponent in front of her.

“If no physical attacks can work on you two…” Yaoyorozu says in a frustrated tone, a small smirk appearing on her lips as a small taser appears in her hands, quickly aiming it at Izuku’s exposed front.

“Master, watch out!” Obariyon yells in a concerned tone, crawling upward Yaoyorozu’s head, his small body hugging the back of Yaoyorozu’s head tightly as he covers her eyes with his paws.

Yaoyorozu screams in frustration, cables shooting off her taser and wildly missing Izuku, both opponents now blind.

Yaoyorozu’s now free hands coming up toward the Persona strapped against her head, grabbing one of his paws and squeezing as she tries to get the monster off her head.

“Now’s your chance, master!” Obariyon yells, Izuku’s eyes slowly adjusting to the light, following his Persona’s voice as he dashes toward Yaoyorozu’s direction.

His fist connects with her midsection, her breath escaping her mouth as she doubles over all the while gritting her teeth in frustration as she blindly makes a jab at toward her opponent, her own fist fortuitously connecting against his jaw as he stumble backward as another taser swiftly appears back in her hands, aiming at Izuku’s assumed direction.

“Oh crap!” Obariyon yells, small eyes going wide beneath the large mane of hair covering them. He hastily detaches himself from Yaoyorozu’s head, leaping toward Izuku as he attempts to shove him out of the way, as Yaoyorozu finally regains her sight.

Cables shoots off the taser’s muzzle, strapping against Obariyon’s floating form, electricity shooting toward the monster, a yowl of pain escaping him, mirrored by Izuku as he stumbles backward with a scream.

“Ah, that was… that was nothing!” Obariyon grits out, hastily tearing off the cables from his fuzzy body, his small frame twitching all the while, “As if… as if some lighting can stop us, you must have mistaken me for my good for noting brother, you meanie!”

“Oh yeah? How about this then,” Yaoyorozu grits out, a second mallet in her hands, aimed at the creature’s floating body as she dashes toward him.

“Haven’t learned your lesson yet? That thing won’t work on us! _Sonic Punch!_ ” Obariyon chirps out in a mocking tone, one small fist aimed at the large hammer striding toward him, shattering in one hit.

The mallet’s head explodes in a cloud of yellow smoke, the Persona coughing in surprise as he’s enveloped by it.

Yaoyorozu drops the mallet’s handle the second it comes in contact with Obariyon’s fist. She hastily slides down the cloud of smoke above her, continuing toward Izuku, a determined frown on her face as she picks up the pace.

Izuku’s eyes widen as his opponent rushes towards him as his traitorous, now slightly addled teenage brain forces him to take notice of her tattered jersey, now open at the front to reveal her dark sports bra, even in such a dire situation, right as his thoughts sluggishly grind to a halt.

He attempts to brace himself for impact, a metal bar already in her hand, and striking him, his movements slow and lethargic as she bonks him in the head with it as the metal bar twists and bend under the forceful impact.

With a strangled hiss, Izuku attempt a counterattack, an incredibly telegraphed left hook completely missing Yaoyorozu as she easily steps to the side while using her staff to make him almost trip down, Izuku stumbling on his steps before slowly turning toward his opponent.

A triumphant smile appears on Yaoyorozu’s lips as she towers over her him, Izuku having to crane his neck upward as his limbs lock in place, his eyes widening.

“Boop.” Yaoyorozu says with a smirk, her fingers flickering at Izuku’s nose, the sudden gesture making him fall on his ass, his limbs heavy and uncooperative.

“What… w- what’s happening to m- me…” Izuku stammers, his tongue feeling like lead in his mouth as the smoke behind Yaoyorozu clears and reveals Obariyon’s snoring form, currently floating mid-air while fast asleep, a large bubble forming and retreating from his nose with each snore.

“Sleeping Gas,” Yaoyorozu says with a pleased smirk. “Your Personas might be your greatest strength, but also your biggest weakness. With that link of yours uniting you, I guessed all I needed to do was find a way to knock one of your Personas out with it, to affect your own brain too.”

“I’m glad you went for someone with a respiratory system this time,” She continues with a relieved sigh, Izuku’s eyelids getting heavier and heavier, the young man trying to stay awake if he could, “As you said, no hard feelings Midoriya, but it was either you or me.”

“D- Darn it…” Izuku curses under his breath, his Persona disappearing into a burst of blue flames as he slowly sinks into unconsciousness. “I- I can’t go d- down this easily-”

 _“N- not like t- this…”_ Izuku thinks, the crowd’s screams slowly fading away as his consciousness starts to fail him. “ _If I have… If I have to go out… if I have to lose this match, let it be in a blaze of glory at least-”_

In the back of Izuku’s addled mind, something ancient stirs like an almost forgotten memory, a red card that had sunk within him way back then, when he got Archangel in the Velvet Room, his last card to play.

“S- Special M- move…” Izuku breaths out with what little remained of his strength, hoisting himself up on his elbows as he stares at his opponent. “ _J- Justice-”_

 _“- Smash_!”

Izuku screams in pain, his green eyes snapping open as a beam of white light erupts from his body and surges upward, startling Yaoyorozu as it explodes in the air above them in a large, ball of blinding light.

From the explosion, shooting stars start precipitating toward the ring, falling blindly against the ring below, exploding on impact.

“Oh crap!” Yaoyorozu curses, her eyes wide, another tower shield erupting from her chest as she huddles beneath it as several shooting stars collide against it with bursts of light, each strike completely bypassing her defences as it seeps at her own strength and stamina.

Yaoyorozu grits her teeth, each strike getting however weaker and weaker than the other as she weathers the star shower beneath her useless shield the best she can.

Then, like it had started, it finally subsides, the young woman warily peeking out of her protection, her breath ragged as a strange, quiet stillness starts filling the arena.

Her body is aching, and she has to physically strain herself to get back on her feet without collapsing on her ass, but she’s still standing, unlike her now spent opponent, laying in the middle of a large crater, right on his side of the ring, Midnight at his side.

“I… I can s- still-” Izuku grits out, his stamina gone as his eyes water. Something pounds loudly beneath his temples, not even able to hoist himself up from his resting position.

“Midoriya Izuku is unable to continue,” Midnight declares after a small pause, “The winner is Yaoyorozu Momo!”

The crowd cheers wildly at Midnight’s words, all tension leaving Yaoyorozu’s body as she’s declared the winner as a sigh of relief escapes her mouth.

“G- got me worried there for a s- second.” Yaoyorozu breath out, slumping down on the ground next to Izuku’s crater. “W- what the heck was that Midoriya, I thought you couldn’t do anything without your-”

Yaoyorozu’s stops, her gaze turning toward Izuku as she notices he has finally passed out, a serene look spreading on his face even despite his recent loss.

“Fine then, keep your secrets.” She says with a huff, a small smile however spreading over Yaoyorozu’s face at the sight. “Just so you know, you’ll have even more explanations to make afterwards, Mr. Vice President.”

Midoriya Izuku… finishes the UA Sports Festival among the Top Eight.

* * *

Izuku’s eyes snap open.

He’s not in the velvet room this time, surrounded as he is on a large, sprawling grass hill. A large tree sits upon the top, dead and blackened, crows and ravens cawing on its branches, looking down.

The sky is overcast with red, technicolour clouds. Izuku’s eyes widen at the alien sky above the three branches, marching toward the bottom of the tree, almost in a dazed state.

“What is this?” Izuku breaths out, his eyes widening as he realizes he has a voice, his body as corporeal and as stable as if he was awake.

The corvids on the tree do not answer him, simply staring down at him with large, unblinking eyes, as Izuku finally reaches the bottom of the tree. “This is what was, and what yet could be,” A voice says from behind him, Izuku turning hastily as he sees a… familiar figure, standing on the lone grass hill under the red skies.

A plump, dark-haired woman stands there, clad in a dark robe as she smiles warmly at Izuku, the feeling of familiarity getting stronger by the second.

“M- Mom?” Izuku asks in a confused tone, even as the older woman shakes her head at his words.

“I’m sorry, but I am not who you think I am,” The woman says, her face so similar and yet so different from his own mother it’s disconcerting. “And yet, at the same time, I am everything you think I will be.”

“I… I don’t understand-” Izuku says, a small headache forming beneath his temples at the woman’s word.

“Mortals often don’t…” The woman says with a sad smile. “I am but a mere mother, who weeps for her squabbling children, unable to reach out to them in their endless cycle of death and abuse, not unlike many others in this world.”

“You are, but a part of a larger whole, Midoriya Izuku.” The familiar woman says, her smile saddening as Izuku’s headache grows stronger. “Part of a grand design, spanning generations, and yet all connected to the first children, each to die so they can one day die again, as different brothers, friends, lovers, and yet always as the same people as before, all but a mirror to the first, primordial struggle, between Hope and Despair, between ☠︎⍓︎♋︎❒︎●︎□︎⧫︎♒︎♏︎◻︎ and 🏱︎☟︎✋︎☹︎☜︎💣︎⚐︎☠︎”

Izuku hisses in pain as the woman’s voice gets scrambled and distorted, his brain barely registering what she has just said as he falls on one knee.

“We will meet again soon, Midoriya Izuku,” The woman says as the crows depart from their branches with loud caws, flapping all around them in a whirlwind of feathers. “When you’ve gained the trust of my favoured bard and the forefather of this country, when you’ve faced something far worse, far older, far greater than I’ll ever be, and the puppet he controls from beyond its prison of dreams-”

“When you’ll find the rebel king of this wretched world, my daughter in chains upon his dark throne, keeping him alive beyond what he deserves, only then, when you’ve found yourself at your lowest, most wretched, most desperate, trapped by your enemies within the belly of the beast, with only the Shadow you call a friend at your side…”

Izuku’s vision darkens, becoming a dark blotch of black feathers as he sinks back into unconsciousness, his mind slowly forgetting whatever was happening to him right now.

“Then, and only then, we will meet again…”

* * *

Izuku wakes with a tired groan, his eyes opening slowly under the harsh light of Recovery Girl’s makeshift nurse office, the young man looking warily around him.

“You’re awake.” A familiar voice says in a calm, almost gentle tone. “How about that.”

“All Might…” Izuku breaths out, his tone weak as he spots the skeletal man at his bedside. “What… where… w- what happened”

“You’ve managed to almost overexert yourself into a coma again. That’s what happened.” Recovery Girl’s voice chides from Izuku’s other side, hopping on a nearby stool to get eye to eye with Izuku’s body. “Honestly, young man, this quirk of yours seems nothing but trouble! This is the third time you end up in this state since I’ve known you, and there doesn’t seem to be any miraculous recovery waiting for you this time.”

She bonks him with her cane on the head, softly. A small, tired chuckle escapes Izuku’s mouth at the motion, even as his limbs weigh him down on the rickety bed below.

“Can’t patch you up if you don’t have any stamina to spare, you know that, right kid?” Recovery Girl continues in a gentle tone, “Honestly, you’ll need to find a way not to end up like this every time you want to use that blasted Quirk of his alongside yours and I can’t have you lose too many lessons because you were stuck on your bed in the dorms and couldn’t attend.”

“How… how long was I out this time?” Izuku breaths out in a soft tone, his eyes scanning the empty room around them, “D- did I miss any of the other matches-?”

“That’s what you’re worried about?” All Might says, a soft chuckle escaping his thin lips as he raises one of his eyebrows at Izuku’s words.

“My friends are out there…” Izuku breaths out, his mind sluggish, “I… I lost my m- match, but they’re s- still there, I need… I need to cheer t- them on.”

“You haven’t missed anything yet, don’t worry,” All Might breaths out in a gentle tone. “Cementoss is repairing the stage right now, that… that Special Move of yours really did a number on it, vert flashy, I bet it attracted everyone’s attention out there.”

Izuku grumbles something under his breath, All Might attempt at cheering him up falling flat as he diverts his gaze from him.

“How… how about we set up a television system here and let you continue watching the tournament in peace, uh?” All Might continues, seemingly unperturbed by Izuku’s unresponsive behaviour. “I’m sure your friends will not hold it against you if you watch them from here instead, and I can stay here with you so we can discuss-”

“I… I lost All Might,” Izuku interrupts him, tears pooling at the side of his eyes as realization finally strikes. “I… I was outplayed, outsmarted, my… my Link to my Persona turned against me, I… I wasn’t enough in the end, my Quirk… my Quirk wasn’t enough… and now I’m stuck here and I’m… I’m sorry I… I didn’t manage to show the world what I was capable of-”

A soft silence reigns in the room, broken only by Recovery Girl pensive hum as she waddles away from their bed.

“No used crying over spilled milk, Young Midoriya,” All Might says with a sigh. “You did everything in your power to win and proved yourself all the way to the quarter-finals, and that’s enough for me. Heck, I’m sure that’s going to be enough for now-”

“Yet I… I still lost…” Izuku says, not even having the strength to cry in earnest, “Maybe… maybe you were wrong… I cannot be like you All Might, my Quirk… I can’t use One for All like you do, and every time I try… every time I try- only end up stuck on a hospital bed, my Personas siphoning over all my power, I’m sure any of my… my friends would do a f- far better job with it than me…”

Another tense silence fills the room, a small sigh escaping All Might’s mouth as he stares down at his student, a pensive look on his face.

“You’re telling me I should give your power to someone else?” All Might says in an unreadable tone, eyes fixed on Izuku, the young man flinching at his words.

“One for All-” Izuku says in a pained tone, “It synergizes with someone’s Quirk, right? Maybe someone with a better one, someone who has had their Quirk for all their lives… Maybe they could be able to-”

“That’s right, Young Midoriya,” All Might interrupts him with a sigh, “Maybe someone with a stronger, someone with a different Quirk would be able to use One for All better-”

Izuku closes his eyes, a strangled sigh escaping his lips as he braces himself.

“T- then I should-”

“But I say Nonsense to that!” All Might yells out, blood erupting from his mouth, one thumb raising toward his own face. “Just like you, I was declared Quirkless at birth, and yet did that stop me? Did that stop you? Young Midoriya, you’re the best successor I could have asked for, no matter what you or anyone else will ever say!”

Izuku eyes snap open, widening as he stares at his mentor, something lodging in his throat as he slowly swallows it down.

“What?”

“Ever wondered why my Quirk is only Super Strength?” All Might continues in a sheepish tone. “Well, that’s because I had no Quirk to work with alongside One for All to begin with, meaning all I could go with, was simply enhancing my strength with it.”

“And yet here I am, being the Number One hero, because… because someone decided to believe in me.” All Might continues, his smile turning melancholic. Izuku manages to spot Recovery Girl as she waddles to his mentor’s side, one small hand going to his skeletal leg and patting him in a comforting way.

“And my Predecessor, my mentor… she had a Quirk already, and yet she still decided to give One for All to me.” All Might goes on, one hand coming to the back of his neck and scratching it, “Just like I did to you…”

“Is… is that the reason why you gave me your Quirk then?” Izuku stammers out, trying to hoist himself up from his bed with a grimace, “B- because you saw yourself-”

“Oh no, not at all Young Midoriya,” All Might interrupts him with a sigh, “I never gave you my Quirk because I saw myself in you. What I did, was try to discourage you from your dreams because I saw myself in you.”

“What…” Izuku breaths out, tears still streaming down his face as he stares up at his skeletal, broken mentor from his hospital bed.

“I saw myself in you, a Quirkless young man begging their hero to tell them they could one day accomplish their dreams.” All Might continues with a sad smile, “And what did that bring me? I’m missing most of my organs, my memory isn’t the same as it was after all the concussions, all the scars and pain I had to suffer over the years, I had to keep everyone and everything at a distance in fear of hurting them… and while I wouldn’t have it any other way if that meant becoming a hero again, I couldn’t impose this life on another… another me, not again…”

“But you, Young Midoriya? You’re not me, you’ll never be me,” All Might continues, each word a stab in Izuku’s heart, “Because you’ll be so much better than me, with or without my powers.”

Izuku eyes widen at All Might words, all air rushing out of his body as a warm feeling begins swirling in his stomach.

“I gave you this power because I know you’re going to become a far better hero than I’ve ever been, heck, to become THE greatest hero this country has ever seen.” All Might concludes with a small smile. “But It’s still your first year here at UA, and the journey is still long for you, I… I shouldn’t have pressured you into this this early, and I shouldn’t have placed this burden on you this early, and for that I’m… I’m sorry.”

As he sees his mentor bow down to him in apology, time slows to a crawl as Izuku feels their relationship deepen with the new knowledge he had just gained of him as the warm feeling in his chest swirls and washes over him with a comforting feeling.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou.”**

All Might’s card erupts from Izuku’s chest, shining brightly as it switches from its previous Rank of IV to the one of V, tears streaming down Izuku cheeks as it happens.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring you closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana.”**

The card stops, slowly sinking back inside Izuku, as time slowly crawls back to its proper rails, alongside the Mysterious Voice’s final words.

**“Thy affinity to the Fool Arcana has strengthened. Thou can now hold up to nine Personas at any given time.”**

“T- thank you All Might…” Izuku stammers out in between sobs, alarming All Might as he straightens back up, “Thank you f- for everything…”

“P- please don’t cry so much Young Midoriya, I’m sure-” All Might begins, only for Recovery Girl’s cane to tap him in the shin, gentle enough not to hurt him.

“Shoo, shoo now, you’ve had your talk; You’re upsetting my patient!” Recovery Girl buts in, shooing All Might out of the room with her cane as Izuku’s tears start to slowly subside as it happens, fatigue setting back in as he falls back on his bed with a sigh.

“I’ll go set check on Power Loader for that television set now dearie,” Recovery Girl says as she turns toward him, her small frame already at the half-open door. “You just rest up and don’t worry about anything. It’s all we can do for now…”

Izuku sighs as Recovery Girl exits the room alongside All Might, gently closing the door behind her. He shuffles in the rickety hospital bed, trying to find a comfortable position to lay in, as his eyes sink close, exhaustion slowly taking the best of him as everything settles into a quiet, eerie calm, leaving Izuku alone with his thoughts.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed since he’s closed his eyes, maybe an hour, maybe an instant, but then, suddenly…

“We were rooting for you, you know?”

Izuku’s eyes snap open, the small, eerily familiar voice coming from his left shattering his solitude as he hastily turns, his eyes widening.

On the chair in between himself and a nearby empty bed, sits a young boy, small and frail, white hair shining under the harsh lights of the infirmary, his wide, yellow eyes staring intently at Izuku from his seat.

Izuku slowly gulps, staring at the kid who had suddenly appeared at his side with a confused look.

“Are… Are you lost?” Izuku stammers out with what he hopes is a reassuring tone, “Did you get separated from your parents? D- do you need me to call for someone? Your parents, maybe? How- How long have you been here?”

The young boy stays silent as he stares at Izuku’s face with deep, soulful yellow eyes, tilting it to the side with a hum.

“We were both rooting for you.” The young kid repeats, this time with a bit more force in his tone, the temperature chilling slightly. “You saved yourself from our monster, you managed to trick us fair and square, you even forced us to use our left side… And yet you still lost. Why is that?”

Izuku sucks in a breath at the young boy’s words, trying to get back up from his laying position, only for a headache to split his head open as he attempts to do so.

“T- Todoroki?” Izuku asks, eyes wide, finally connecting the dots. The familiar hairstyle, the cold, sad eyes, even if of the wrong colour, even without a scar marring his face, “Todoroki, is this you? Is this… Is this your…”

“I am a Shadow.” Todoroki’s shadow admits in a neutral tone, eyes boring into Izuku, “I am the true self. I am the trauma he never managed to get rid of, I am the dream that was killed so young by our awful father, by our poor mother, and I am the pledge he clings to this day, the one you managed to crack by simply existing.”

Izuku gulps, his nerves spiking as his brain goes into overdrive, the young man completely ignoring his dull headache or exhaustion as he almost gets himself off his bed.

“Where is Todoroki? What did you do to him?” He manages to grit out with what little authority and courage he can muster in his current state, eyes narrowing at the yellow-eyed kid at his bedside.

Todoroki’s shadow raises an eyebrow at Izuku, his expression neutral, so out of place on a child’s face as he intently stares at Izuku.

“You are a strange person, Midoriya Izuku,” Todoroki Shadow announces in a strange tone. “You know nothing about us, about our struggles, about our story, and yet you’re so ready to lay down your life for someone who not even a couple hours ago declared he was going to destroy you at this tournament. Why is that?”

“I’m studying to become a hero,” Izuku says with no hesitation as his eyes fix on the Shadow at his side, “Even if this wasn’t happening because of my Quirk, even if this was someone I didn’t even know, I’d do the same for anyone else out there, and that includes him and you.”

“Now, tell me where the… where the Hell did you put Todoroki?” Izuku continues between gritted teeth, Todoroki’s shadow tilting his head to the side with a hum.

“Your quirk uh…” Todoroki’s Shadow mumbles under his breath, a sigh escaping the kid’s mouth, “He’s fine, I’m fine, we’re fine, he’s just sleeping right now. He was… he wasn’t doing that good after the cavalry battle, and I knew the monster was haunting this stadium, I couldn’t allow anyone to harm him again, so I simply… put it somewhere where no one would think to check.”

“Where is he then? I want to talk to him I… I want to know he’s safe,” Izuku continues, the Shadow’s cold stare softening at his words.

“You care about us that much, uh?” Todoroki’s Shadow says in a surprised tone, “But then, why am I surprised, you’re Midoriya Izuku. You care about people and have people care about you in return, regardless of who they might be or what you may gain from them in return.”

“No wonder we envy you so much.” Todoroki’s shadow concludes with a shrug, Izuku’s breath catching in his throat at his word.

“Todoroki… envies me?” Izuku says in astonishment, the mere concept sounding alien and wrong in his mouth, “I… I don’t care if you’re his Shadow, but that… that doesn’t make any sense! His Quirk is amazing, and he has great control over it, he’s probably on his way to become a great hero, why would he even envy… me?”

“I know, I’m shocked too.” Todoroki’s shadow drawls out in a scathing tone, “Why would we, a boy who was created in a broken house by a violent father and a terrified mother, a boy who lived all his life to accomplish a dream that wasn’t his own, to spite a monster who shattered his mother’s psyche and then locked her away, who was never allowed to have any friends, any siblings, anyone there for him… Be envious of you, plain, boring, unassuming Midoriya Izuku, with his close knitted circle of friends you would give your life for, who managed to become our Vice President with a quarter of our class’ votes, and who regularly takes lunch with All Might himself?”

“What. A. Mystery.” Todoroki’s Shadow concludes with a tired drawl, yellow eyes glaring holes into Izuku, “I guess we’ll never figure it out.”

“E- even if that was true,” Izuku hastily stammers out, his frown deepening, “Even if he really envied me, or… or what you’re saying about his life is true, I’m sure… I’m sure Todoroki wouldn’t want… wouldn’t want for me, for anyone to know about any of this if he wasn’t here with you, I’d rather hear his story from his own mouth than-”

“But this is his own mouth,” Todoroki’s shadow interrupts with a cold tone, the temperature in the room starting to freeze as cold breath mist escapes his mouth, “I am him, and he is me, and you’d be surprised how open we can get with our trauma, when we recognize in someone else the same flags we ourselves might raise.”

“If you really are him, then you’ll have no issue in showing him to me.” Izuku grits out in a confrontational tone, his fists tightening behind the covers, “I still want you to show him to me, or I’ll… I’ll make you show him to me.”

“You and what army?” Todoroki’s shadow says in a mocking tone, “You do not have the strength to fight me, and your reserves of stamina and special points are still recharging, you have no power over me, and even then, by the time you’ve gained enough of your strength back, we’ll be long gone from here.”

“What… what do you mean?” Izuku grits out, his head killing him even as warning bells start ringing, “What are you planning?!”

“It’s better this way,” Todoroki’s shadow says in a sombre tone, “Our failure was the last straw. No one is going to miss us anyway, not here, nor back home, and this is the only way I can think of for saving him from him. We’re just going to disappear-”

“There’s people who are going to miss you,” Izuku hastily butts in, panic starting to swell in his chest, “Tokoyami spent all lunch break searching for you with me, our teachers are worried sick, and I’m… I’m sure there must be someone at home who will miss you if you’re gone, if not your father, if not your mother, then anyone else…”

“My sister will do just fine without me bothering her…” Todoroki’s shadow says with a shrug. “And Tokoyami, he was probably moved by some sort of misplaced camaraderie on his part, something we do not deserve, not after misjudging you, our opponents, our classmates, our formation in such a humiliating way… He’ll barely notice we’re gone…”

“Then… then I will be the one who’ll miss you!” Izuku says, his tone getting louder, startling Todoroki’s shadow, “If no one else will care about you, if no one else will notice you’ve gone away, then I will.”

“You? You barely know us, Midoriya.” Todoroki’s Shadow says with a frown. “Honestly why would you care so much about us? I told you he’s safe, I told you we’ll be fine, we’re not friends, I never wanted to be anyone’s friend here, we’re not even rivals anymore, we’re barely acquittances… why would you even care about us this much?”

“You said it yourself,” Izuku shoots back with a small smirk, some energy shooting back into his body as he manages to finally sits back up from his bed, “I’m Midoriya Izuku. I care about people, and I want to care about you right now… the both of you. You said you’re not my friend? You said no one cares about you?”

“Well, tough luck with that buddy, we’re friends now, and I care about you.” Izuku says in an earnest tone, Todoroki’s Shadow’s eyes widening at his words, “And that’s not going to change, because regardless of what you say or do, I’ll be there for you.”

“I don’t think that’s how friendship works…” Todoroki’s Shadow says with a small frown, even as a small crack starts forming on his brow.

“And what do you know about that huh? You yourself said you never had a friend before.” Izuku shoots back with a smirk, another crack appearing on the Shadow’s face, passing over his left eyes, “In fact, you said you envied me making friends so easily? Well, I never had friends before either, before coming here and met you all, so this is as new to me as it is to you… but I know that we can… we can figure it all out, together, only if you let me.”

“You’re not making any sense.” Todoroki’s Shadow says, his eyes narrowing at Izuku, his tone getting heated as another crack appears, “We’re not friends. This place… this university is not somewhere you go to make friends! This is a superhero academy, where you train and bleed and sweat alongside future competitors for the spot of the Number One Hero on the charts and you should be glad I’m throwing in the towel now!”

“But that’s not how any of this should work,” Izuku shoots back, his own eyes narrowing at Todoroki’s Shadow. “We’re all students here, and we don’t need to be all rivals or competitors! We can- we should be friends and start developing our bonds that we’ll then use in the future as heroes, not divided, one against the other for a number one spot that honestly never mattered, but united, in the shared desire of helping someone, of saving lives, together!”

“That’s not how heroes work…” Todoroki’s Shadow whimpers, another crack forming on his face, “That’s not how the Monster told me it works…”

“And why do you want to become a hero then?” Izuku shoots back, “Because someone told you to do it? Just to spite someone? I’ve known you for barely a month Todoroki, and yet I know that can’t be it. So, why did you want to become a hero? The real reason?”

Todoroki’s Shadow’s eyes widen at Izuku words, something flashing behind them as another crack forms

“I wanted to save her…” He breaths out his voice distorted, a mix of the high-pitched tone of the young kid fused with the cold, lost tone of the real Todoroki. “We wanted to become the hero she used to think we were going to become, before… before everything else happened…”

“Then let’s do it, right here, right now,” Izuku says, a small smile appearing on his lips. “And let’s do it together, as heroes, rivals, friends… whatever you prefer, Todoroki.”

“You... You are trying to deceive us, like he always does, trying to hurt us and use us like everyone does…” The Shadow says in a small, scared tone, more cracks appearing all along his skin as he curls back into a fetal ball on the chair as he scrunches shut his golden eyes “Why would you be any different from him or the others-”

“Because I was- because I was used and hurt too.” Izuku finally admits in a shaky tone, the Shadow’s golden eyes snapping open at his words. “Maybe not in the same way you did, or by the same… the same people, but I know how it feels, and I didn’t let that define me, and I swear to everything that is holy, that I’m not going to do the same to you, I promise.”

“We were almost outside of this mess, all we needed to do was saying our final goodbye to you,” Todoroki’s Shadow says, his voice distorted and garbled, almost inhuman as more and more cracks appear on his face, shattering and cracking open within bursts of light. “He was blind to the truth, unwilling to accept me fully, unwilling to truly rage against the machine that lead him where we are now, ready to let everything go and just disappear- And yet here you are, with just a couple honeyed words, accepting us for what we are, telling us you’re just like us, that he’s not alone… And he’s ready to fight back, ready to accept me, ready to fight for you, die for you-”

“What are you?” Todoroki’s Shadow asks in a soft, almost scared tone, his body shattering in an explosion of light, blinding Izuku on the spot.

He hastily covers his eyes with an arm, the bright light subsiding as he peers back, Todoroki’s older form now on that same chair, mismatched eyes blinking in a daze as he looks at the young man in front of him.

From above, a blue card floats downward in front of Todoroki, the young man almost mechanically taking it in his hands, disappearing into a burst of blue flames in his hands as a soft light washes over him.

“And then there were three…” Izuku breaths out with a groan, hiding his face beneath his hands as the inevitable happens. “Great, how am I going to explain this to Uraraka and the rest of our class now-”

“What… what happened?” Todoroki asks in a confused tone, looking around himself with a slightly surprised look, “I… I was returning to the dorms just now, after losing the cavalry battle… how did I get here?”

“Don’t know Todoroki, why don’t you tell me?” Izuku says as he slumps back into the infirmary’s bed with a relieved sigh, all strength leaving him with his classmate back, “How much do you remember after that? Any evil elementary schooler versions of yourself assaulting you in a dark alley and swallowing you whole for starters?”

Todoroki’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, memories starting to swarm within his mind at Izuku’s words.

“He… he didn’t attack me…” Todoroki says with a frown, “He was outside our dorms, waiting for me, but he didn’t… attack me. He simply talked to me, and then… then I realize just how easy my life would have been, if there was someone else living it instead of myself… Then all I remember is… stillness, calm washing over me as I become a spectator of my own life…”

“And then…” Todoroki’s frown loosens, his eyes clearing as he stares at Izuku with an almost serene expression. “Then I heard your voice, piercing through the fog, talking to him, the other me… and that was enough to bring me back.”

“Well, at least I know I don’t need to repeat myself on that front.” Izuku says with a tired chuckle, eyes peering back at his frowning classmate. “Listen… what happened to you just now… I’m… I’m sorry, this was… this was probably all my fault, what happened to you and… and after what happened to your dad-”

“Why, what happened to my father?” Todoroki asks, his brows furrowing in confusion at Izuku’s words, “Did he… did he do anything when I was gone? Did the bastard say anything to you?”

Izuku startles slightly at Todoroki’s words, a nervous chuckle escaping his mouth.

“Well… Officially, a member of the League of Villains assaulted him in his VIP booth and then attacked the stadium…” Izuku stammers as he averts his eyes from his classmate with a sigh. “B- but actually… I’m ninety percent sure that was another Shadow that probably managed to get here alongside yours d- due to… to my Quirk, so… It was all my fault, s- sorry…”

“Oh.” Todoroki breaths out, his expression unreadable, a shadow passing over his features. Then, almost instantly, all tension leaves Todoroki body, a sigh escaping his lips, cool air coming with it.

“Damn, I wish I was there to see it.” Todoroki breaths out, almost a smile but not quite appearing on his lips, “Where… where is he now?”

“W- well, probably still in the hospital…” Izuku says with a worried frown, “Present Mic mentioned during his b- broadcast that he’s probably going to get stuck there for a week-”

“A whole week…” Todoroki says, a sigh of relief escaping his mouth, his eyes closing as he slumps on his chair. “And it’s during Golden Week too, Fuyumi and Natsuo must be… ecstatic right now, I should probably give them a call soon-”

Izuku gives his classmate a long, hesitant look, something thick lodging within his throat as his previous conversation with his Shadow plays within his mind.

“How… how much do you remember from when your… your other self was holding the wheel?” Izuku tentatively asks, Todoroki’s eyes snapping open and turning toward Izuku, as if he had completely forgotten he was there with him. “Because… because he told me some things… some things that I don’t think you’d told me otherwise…”

Todoroki gulps, his relief gone as his expression crafts itself back into careful neutrality, his cold gaze sweeping over Izuku, as if he was searching for something.

“And… I understand if you don’t want to talk about this right now, or ever for that matter.” Izuku hastily continues, panic starting to pool within his stomach as he rambles along, “I… I know I said I wanted to be your friend, but you… you don’t need to say anything, you don’t owe me anything, just… I want you to know that I’m here for-”

“Did you know that forty percent of Superheroes out there are domestic abusers?” Todoroki says in a neutral, collected tone, his voice betraying nothing as Izuku’s mouth instantly slams shut. “Some people try to justify this, saying it’s all due to the stress if the job, or blaming the families or some… some other excuse such as that, but it still happens. And there might be… might be support groups out there for this, or lawyers specialized on cases like this but… you know what’s the worst part of all of this?”

“The worst part is that that statistic is objectively false.” Todoroki announces with a solemn tone, Izuku’s breath catching in his throat at his next words “Forty percent of Superheroes are _reported_ as domestic abusers. We might never know how many are still doing it, behind closed doors, before crafting their picture-perfect persona for the world to see…”

“After all, it is kind of difficult to denounce your abuser when no one believes you because of his job, and do it to someone who works with them on the regular after all.” Todoroki concludes with a grim tone, averting his gaze from Izuku with a sigh, “Especially…”

“Especially when your abuser happens to be the Number Two Hero.”

Izuku gulps, his worldview starting to crack, the pedestal he had put heroes on starting to crumble, if just by a little, all the implications and unsaid meanings of Todoroki’s words slowly eroding them.

“I remember what you said to him,” Todoroki continues before Izuku can even open his mouth, “What you said to the other me, when he was still in here. And while, yes, I don’t owe you anything, and I never came here to make friends, especially not with you… I still think you at least deserve to know the truth, about my family, about my pledge… about my father.”

“W- why?” Izuku manages to stammer out, his eyes wide, “Why to me? Why right now?”

“Because you made me use my flames.” Todoroki says with a shrug, “Because you brought me out of the fog, because you are just like me, maybe not in the way I thought you were… Or maybe because like you said, you’re my friend now, whatever I like it or not, so I might as well just... Go along with it.”

“Whatever it is… I think you deserve to know the truth,” Todoroki says as he averts his eyes from his classmate. “So you can understand why… why I was so easily swallowed by my own Shadow after my failure, why… why I’m so glad my father is not here right now, after what happened during the cavalry battle.”

“Because despite all my instincts screaming at me to do otherwise…” Todoroki concludes with a deep sigh, his mismatched eyes turning back to Izuku.

“I trust you, Midoriya Izuku.”

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou”**

Time slows to a crawl as the familiar voice booms in the stillness of a stopped reality, Izuku’s eyes widening as a card appears in between himself and Todoroki, shining, spinning wildly in front of his eyes.

**“Thou have forged a new bond… It shall bring thou closer to thy dreams…”**

The card stops, revealing its current rank of I, as well as a bold IV sitting beneath its picture, featuring a headless man dressed in fine, red and white clothing, sitting on a silver throne.

The figure's severed head was being held by the hair by one hand, the other wielding a large sceptre, a silver crown resting on the stump where his neck would be.

**“Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Emperor Arcana”**

The card sinks within Izuku’s chest, the familiar warm feeling spreading over him as a small smile appears on his face, even as he keeps giving his new bond a worried look as his own Persona card erupt from his own chest and presenting itself to him, shining brightly in the process.

**“The Emperor’s soul has grown and prospered under thy guidance. He has now gained a new ability.”**

The Persona seems to be at level 14, two levels higher than Izuku’s Quixote, all the while belonging, as he suspected, to the Emperor Arcana.

The image on the card seems to be of a large red cloud, a red-skinned humanoid creature merging on the hip within it, a mane of fire shining on his horned head, silver bands tied to his wrists and neck, chaining him to the cloud via ethereal, silvery chains.

The Persona’s stats are seemingly skewed toward Magic, all with two abysmal Strength and Luck stats and relatively standard Agility and Endurance stats. It also contains three more resistances compared to Izuku’s and Uraraka’s personal cards as it sported a resistance to not only Fire and Ice, but also Nuclear and Water as well, all the while showing a weakness to both Light and Psy.

The Persona’s name appears to be Hong Hai-er.

The card switches to its skills’ chart, revealing the four skills of _Taunt, Agi, Maragi, Ice Wall_ and _Counter,_ as well as a future _Fire Break_ on level 15.

The card shines once more, revealing the Persona’s new skill of _Frei_ , before sinking back within Todoroki’s chest as time slowly crawl back to its proper pace as it happened, Izuku’s smile fading as he remembers, exactly, what his new friend, his new bond is about to reveal to him.

“Midoriya…” Todoroki continues, a grimace twisting his features as he begins to talk, a dread pooling at the pit of Izuku’s stomach.

“How much do you know about Quirk Marriages?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wonder who will spot the New Vegas Easter Egg.
> 
> Was tempted to make a Skyrim one instead, since as I mentioned once before to my priceless Beta Reader, SmashingSkunk53, the only two pre war stuff we still have in the BNHA world are, technically, only Skyrim and Doom because one kept getting rereleased by Bethesda, and the other kept getting ported to every single console in existence, but then I realized that'd be a bit too cheap at the moment.
> 
> Anyway, Hong Hai-er, or Red Boy, is a character from the Chinese Epic Journey to the West. He's the Bull Demon King's son, and managed to gain control over the "True Fire of Samadhi" among other things. More on this in future chapters.
> 
> BTW, this is my fanfic, and I get to choose who's winning the sports festival!
> 
> Next chapter somewhere around next week? Maybe?


	18. Story Event: Tournament Quarter Finals

“Midoriya!” “Midori!” “Deku!”

A veritable flood of people barges inside Recovery Girl’s makeshift infirmary.

The loud group almost gets stuck in the small entrance, each trying to get inside first only for the lot of them to finally squeeze through the narrow passageway, almost stumbling one on top of the other into the room.

“G- guys?!” Izuku asks in a startled tone, trying to hastily wipe some stray tears away even despite his lack of strength. “W- what are you doing here-?”

Everyone is there. Or at least, everyone he has managed to form a close bond within his class is there right now, from Aoyama to Yaoyorozu, from the Magician to the Sun, they are all trying their best to get inside the room to check on him.

The only one missing is Iida, a small pang of worry forming in Izuku’s stomach at the grim reminder, even as he gets swarmed on all sides by curious well-wishers.

“You hadn’t come up yet despite finally fixing the ring and we started to get worried!” Uraraka is the first to talk, her eyes wide and fixed on Izuku’s form as her mouth starts going a mile a minute. “Why are you still in here Deku? I thought-”

Uraraka’s words die in her mouth, as more and more members of class 1-A start streaming in the room, crowding the entrance as they take in the scene in front of them.

Izuku, while not crying right now, seems to have been crying recently. His eyes are blotchy and puffy, the young man laying boneless on the rickety infirmary bed in front of them.

At his side is Todoroki, his eyebrows raising to his hairline in surprise. That’s the same Todoroki who had declared war on Izuku right at the start of the event, as well as the same Todoroki who had lost the Cavalry battle because of him, and the same Todoroki who had been alone with a defenceless, visibly upset Izuku for god knows how long.

“Todoroki, I hope you’re not here to be a sore loser and rub salt in the wound,” Shinso announces in a dark tone, the young man clawing his way to the front of the group as he spots him at Izuku’s bedside. “Because if you did, then I must have severely misjudged you-”

“No no, guys! He’s… he’s fine!” Izuku hastily shoots back in a feeble tone, trying his best to sit back up on his bed, “You… you know how I am, we were just… talking about things, and I got upset over something stupid again, he did nothing wrong-”

That seems to defuse the situation a little, the full group managing to squeeze inside the room, Shoji coming in last, his large form almost cracking the door’s frame.

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re still here Midori,” Ashido chirps in with a frown, “And what was that last move you pulled against Yaomomo?! That was insane, one second everything was quiet the next you lit up like a Christmas tree, what gives?!”

“Ah, but isn’t it obvious, _mademoiselle_?” Aoyama buts in with a pleased grin, the back of one of his hands melodramatically coming to his brow. “He must have been moved by my dazzling performance during the cavalry battle! Ah, the twinkling gleam of his light, almost as radiant as mine isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I think no one actually saw you do anything during the cavalry battle… Like, at all!” Ashido interjects with a frown. “In fact, where you even in there, you straight up disappeared during it and I don’t remember our team taking your headband-”

“I was curious about that too.” Yaoyorozu says to Midoriya with a pensive hum, completely ignoring her classmates as if they aren’t there, “Holding out such a move on us Midoriya? Very sneaky, didn’t expect that from you-”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly, everyone’s stares back on him as he shifts beneath his covers, “W- well, it’s… it’s a new development really, a s- special move I can use e- even without a Persona-”

“A spectacular show of power indeed.” Tokoyami says in a brooding tone, one hand pre-emptively grabbing at Dark Shadow’s diminutive beak before he could say anything, “Yet one that seems to have such a… grim toll on one’s body, if your current, bedridden state is any indication. Truly, a double-edged sword if I ever saw one.”

“Y- yeah…” Izuku concedes with a sobering sigh, “I- I didn’t expect I had to use so much s- stamina for that attack, and n- now I’m… stuck on a bed for who knows how long, just l- like…”

“Just like after the Entrance Exam,” Uraraka realizes with a murmur, yet loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “And the USJ, but… you were fine after the USJ, even after… after everything that happened, I remember it, why is it any different now?”

“I- I don’t know…” Izuku admits with a frown. “P- Parts of my Quirk are s- still a mystery to me, I’ll need to f- find a easy way to replicate it if I want to be able to use it c- consistently once I’m a hero…”

“Speaking of weird and mysterious Quirks,” Ashido buts in with a wolfish grin, sliding in near Uraraka, one arm slipping down her shoulders and squeezing “You gotta spill the beans girl, you still haven’t told us why did you manage to get yourself Midoriya’s very own Quirk-”

Uraraka chuckles awkwardly, everyone attention shifting back on her.

“Oh, she’s got one of those too?”

Before Uraraka can say anything, Todoroki buts in in a neutral tone, having gotten up from his seat in the process, gingerly holding his own card in his left hand, “Did you also get temporarily replaced by a pre-schooler version of yourself or-”

“No?!” Uraraka says in a confused tone, everyone’s eyes shifting back to Todoroki as familiar blue flames erupt around his card, disappearing back to hence it came, “Did you get kidnapped by a dragon only to break free of the cage you put yourself in via sheer force of will or-”

“Woah, Todoroki got a persona too?!” Hagakure chirps in in astonishment, cutting Uraraka off as she starts wiggling in excitement, “Now I’m jealous, any way I can get one too Midoriya?”

“Whoa there, if Midori is giving anyone else a Persona that’s gona be me, right?” Ashido buts in, instantly turning toward Izuku, her eyes sparkling, “Come on Midori, what do I need to do to get one, I’m willing to do _almost_ anything. ”

“I… I have no control on how they get anything really, at s- some point some Shadows showed up and two of them happened to be theirs…” Izuku says with a tired sigh, the beginning of a headache, “It just… it just happened, honestly-”

“Yeah, and it’s not that pleasant either-” Uraraka says in a grim tone, everyone’s attention back to her “Would anyone here willingly face their-” She takes a breath, as if to steady her voice, and then continued “ their darkest self and remain unscathed? Would anyone be really willing to do that?”

“I mean, if it’s _your_ Darkest self? Sure.” Ashido chirps in with a smug smile, “Girl, you’re Uraraka Ochako, how evil or powerful would your darkest self be, I bet she just showed up after that giant monster took you and apologized for being late or something-”

“Ashido,” Uraraka says with a small frown. “Hate to break it to you… but the giant dragon-heart-hands-monster thingy that attacked the USJ was my Darkest Shadow. That’s how evil and powerful she was.”

Ashido stops herself, a small silence filling the room as she stares at the young woman at her side in barely concealed horror. She slowly gulps, snapping her hanging mouth shut.

“I don’t want a persona anymore.” Ashido says in a hurried tone, “If that was Uraraka’s darkest self I don’t want to see mine or-”

Ashido eyes widen as she turns toward Todoroki, realization seemingly striking her.

“Crap, was the monster who attacked us your darkest self, Todoroki?!” Ashido yells out, startling some of the students around her. “Damn, I thought that was supposed to be another of those Nomu guys, how did-”

“Oh, no, that wasn’t mine.” Todoroki drones in with a shrug, “My-”

Todoroki pauses, as if he was still trying to get familiar with the word, “My Shadow seems different from Uraraka’s, didn’t turn into a monster or anything, he just… convinced me it would have been easier if he was the one “holding the wheel,” as Midoriya put it.”

“Yeah…” Izuku sighs with a frown. “As I said, I have… no idea how any of this works, or why it’s happening. I’m just… glad both Todoroki and Uraraka are safe now…”

“Speaking of which,” Izuku says with a frown as a thought comes to his mind. “Someone should really go warn the faculty that we’ve finally found Todoroki, they’re probably worried sigh especially after what happened with the… with the villain-”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure the faculty has already been notified.”

Everyone startles at the newcomer’s voice, startling him back as a river of blood spews off his mouth to the infirmary floor, promptly startling the hero students back, a rickety table on wheels behind him, a large television on top of it.

“Oh, uhm, hello sir?” Uraraka is the first to asks in a confused tone, the skeletal man in front of her catching his breath back, “Are you… supposed to be here? I hope you’re not with the media hoping for some big scoop-”

“Oh no, don’t worry about that dearie,” Recovery Girl gentle tone comes from behind the large television, displaying an impressive feat of strength as she wheels the large wheeled contraption in. “Any journalist coming to ten meters on my Infirmary will feel the wrath of my cane. He’s just a relative of the patient, he’s allowed to be here-”

Izuku almost chokes on his own spit at Recovery Girl’s words, mirrored perfectly by All Might choking on his own blood nearby, further startling the group of friends in the room.

“Relative… Oh, you must be Midoriya’s dad then!” Yaoyorozu exclaims with a pleasant smile, completely missing both of Izuku’s and All Might’s further coughing feats at her words. “I’m glad to finally meet you. I must admit Midoriya never said anything about you, but I’m sure you must have been a great example to him if he’s become the fine young man he is today-”

“Yeah, and your son calls me Daddy too.” Ashido buts in with her own cheeky grin, Izuku’s cheeks reddening instantly as his entire body starts longing for the sweet release of death even as the class descends into hysterics.

“I… I never called her anything of the sort!” Izuku finally manages to loudly spit out, earning a snicker from Ashido in the process. “And that’s not the point, he’s… he’s not my DAD, he’s just my personal trainer!”

“I told you about him already, he’s the one who helped training me during… during the year before the Entrance Exam.” Izuku explains, his tone now more sedated as he eyes his mentor with a small smile.

“Toshinori Yagi,” All Might presents himself with a sheepish grin, having also managed to compose himself, “Glad to finally meet my-”

“Toshinori” paused, trying to put into words what exactly Izuku was to him, and exactly how much he could ultimately reveal to his other students without giving himself away, “ My student’s friends, he wrote me plenty about all of you, couldn’t wait to meet you all in person…”

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid the meeting will have to be short lived.” Recovery Girl buts in, waddling to the edge of the group and shooing them away toward the open door. “This is still an infirmary, and my patient needs rest and quiet. I can’t have so many people bothering him all at once, especially if more patients get admitted in in the course of the tournament.”

“Shoo, shoo!” She exclaims as she keeps shooing them away, the groups sheepishly getting herded out of the room by the diminutive woman, “I’m sure you’ll be able to return pester him in no time once the tournament is over, but what he needs right now is rest and recuperation, not a horde of teenagers huddling all over his bed!”

“Wait, can I-” Todoroki, the only one still hanging back near Izuku’s bed. He gulps, slowly, as everyone attention shifts back on him, “Can I stay back here? At least till the tournament is over? I-” Todoroki falters for barely a second, although is so fast Izuku is pretty sure he’s the only one who notices it, “I don’t want to leave Midoriya alone-”

Recovery Girl hums pensively, her wizened face staring at Todoroki’s perfectly neutral expression for what feels like it’s an eternity, seemingly searching for _something_.

“Fine.” Recovery Girl finally concedes with a sigh, “But don’t be too loud, and try not to disturb the patient too much.”

“Oh, come on, he gets to pester Midori some more and we don’t? Not fair!” Ashido whines in a loud tone, a sentiment mimicked by some of the members of Izuku’s friends’ group.

“Yeah, it’s not fair that he has to be stuck here for the rest of the tournament,” Uraraka pipes in with a deep frown, cogs and wheels almost visibly turning behind her brow as she goes deep in thought, “Maybe we should, I don’t know… take over one of the prep rooms, we wheel Deku’s bed there as well as the television, that way we can all enjoy-”

“D- don’t worry guys, I’ll… I’ll be fine,” Izuku hastily interjects, before anyone can do anything they might regret later, “You… you go back there, half of you still… still need to prepare for their future matches, and I don’t want to deprive the other half of watching the Sports Festival live-”

A loud horn blares, signaling the imminent start of the next bout of matches, and startling everyone in the room with it.

“Crap, that must be my cue to leave.” Shinso says with a weary sigh, “Time to face the music I guess, given how close knitted they seem there’s no way that Class 1-B guy didn’t blabber to his teammate about my quirk-”

“I’m… I’m sure you’ll figure out something Shinso,” Izuku attempts to cheer his friend up, a couple murmurs of assent coming from his nearby classmates.

“Eh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Shinso sighs in defeat. “But as our Uraraka said, I’ll just have to try my best and see how it goes-”

“Which you can’t do if the lot of you is still stuck here,” Recovery Girl buts in with a frustrated tone. “Shoo, shoo, come on, we don’t have all day!”

The group is finally, effectively herded out of the room, each hastily yelling their goodbyes back to the still bedridden young man.

“Rest well Deku, see you after the tournament!” Uraraka hollers back, the last to leave the room as she’s literally shoved out of the door by force, “I’ll win the tournament for you!”

“You’ll have to defeat me first, kero,” Tsuyu’s words are the last thing Izuku hears, the door closing behind his friend as they each move forward, leaving him in the small infirmary room alongside Todoroki, Recovery Girl and a still depowered All Might.

“Bye guys…” Izuku mumbles back, a small smile appearing on his face as he shifts on his bed, trying to get more comfortable even as he props his pillow on the back of the bed, trying to hoist himself up into a sitting position and, finally, succeeding.

“You have-” Todoroki begins mumbling, expressionless eyes fixed on Izuku’s pleased smile, a small frown creasing his brow, “You have some great friends Midoriya.”

“Yeah, you are all pretty great,” Izuku shoots back without missing a beat, Todoroki’s eyes widening slightly at his inclusion in the friend group, “Couldn’t have wished to befriend anyone better-”

“I’ll have to agree with you on that one, Young Midoriya,” Toshinori begins with a hum, attracting the attention of both Izuku and Todoroki as he starts working on the television in front of them, wheeling it as close as he could to Izuku’s bed, “Now, let’s see if we can get this working before Youn- your friend’s fight, can’t have you miss that one for anything in the world-”

He begins plugging in the various cables in between the television and the nearby television wall, the black screen coming to life to a random channel.

“Speaking of friends-” Todoroki says as his frown deepens, images moving on the screen at a breakneck speed before finally tuning in the channel showing the UA First Years’ Sports Festival “I would have expected Iida to be alongside your friends when they barged all in? Where is he, it seems really uncharacteristic of him not to be here for his classmate in need-”

“Oh.” Izuku breaths out, the dark dread pooling at the pit of his stomach growing bleaker and stronger at Todoroki’s words, the young man diverting his eyes from the screen as he looks back at Izuku.

Something must be showing on Izuku’s pained face, because Todoroki’s eyes widen in alarm.

“Iida… Iida had to leave early after the cavalry battle…” Izuku begins to explain, his throat getting clogged in by emotion, All Might turning back toward him with a frown, “He… he had a family emergency…”

“His brother got assaulted by a villain while he was working-”

* * *

Iida Tenya loves his brother.

He would do anything for him.

He is his personal hero, the one who had inspired him to take on the family mantle in the first place, a symbol of justice for every hero and sidekick he had ever had the pleasure to meet and help out in the course of his and their careers.

For Iida Tenya, Tensei is his entire world…

But now, that world has been broken.

He still remembers the words of the Doctor, taking him and his poor mother to the side to explain his brother’s condition, how _lucky_ he had been to receive help so close to his assault, unlike the other hero, the one who had died during the attack.

Lucky, Tenya still feels his blood boil at the word. How lucky indeed for his brother, to have every single bone of his body broken and shattered by who knows what villain, to end up in a coma soon after his operation, to almost die on the line of duty, to fail at stopping a villain from murdering another hero.

He grits his teeth in frustration, his impotence to the situation at hand, his fists tightening. He feels drained, his eyes dry, as if he didn’t have any tears to cry anymore.

His worried, distraught mother is now back at their family home, there to pick up the pieces of their now shattered lives, leaving Tenya alone with his grief, as well as the shattered body of his beloved brother.

“What were you even doing there, Tensei…?” Tenya mutters under his breath, his brother motionless form offering no answer as the machines beep steadily all around them, “Your agency is in Tokyo and employs countless sidekicks, what were you even in that alley in Hosu, alone-”

“That’s what I was hoping you could tell us, kid.”

Tenya turns, startled, to the voice coming from behind him. The hospital’s room is now open, Tenya cursing himself for not noticing, lost as he was in his grief, as a shabby looking man wearing a dark business suit stands awkwardly on the doorstep.

“Ah, sorry, didn’t want to startle you.” The man says in a sheepish tone, hastily producing a badge from the inner pocket of his dark jacket, “I’m Officer Magatsu” The shabby man introduced himself, “I’m working for the Hero Public Safety Commission to investigate the… unpleasant incident your brother has been subjected to.”

“The Hero Commission?!” Iida asks in a startled tone, instantly standing back up into a stiff position, “It’s… it’s an honour to meet you Sir, I’m sorry if I didn’t react sooner but-”

“Ah, don’t… don’t sweat it too much kid.” The officer says in an awkward tone, “I understand how… hard things must seem right now, but I am your brother’s coordination officer to the commission, and I was hoping you could make light to his… current circumstances.”

“My brother?” Tenya asks, his eyebrows shooting to his hairline, “What do you need to know about my brother? I… I’ve been at university for the entirety of this month, I… I unfortunately didn’t get to meet him till… till today-”

“Oh yeah, you were one of the kids at the Sports Festival!” the officer says, his yellow eyes lightening up in recognition, “I was watching it earlier man, such a bummer you didn’t manage to make the cut for the Tournament, I admit I was rooting for you…”

“T- thanks…” Iida replies in a subdued tone, straightening his back slightly at his words, “What… what would you like to know? I’ll try to answer the best that I can.”

“Great to hear!” The officer says with a large grin, “Anyway, your brother was currently employed on a… personal top-secret mission. He didn’t notify neither me nor any of his sidekicks about the specifics of the mission per se, so I was hoping if you could tell me anything we might have missed?”

“A… top secret mission?” Tenya says in a confused tone, “He… he didn’t tell me anything about any of this during our calls, I’m… I’m sorry sir…”

“Eh, as I said, don’t sweat it kid. It was a shot in the dark anyway-” The officer says with a shrug, a ballpoint pen appearing in his hand as he starts scratching something on a notebook in his other hand, “Next question, do you think your brother had some… shady dealings on the side? Like, some inner secret he didn’t want to share with the public, some bribes he had taken in a moment of weakness, some sort criminal past or connections, or maybe some… scorned girlfriend he had to keep quiet on the side-”

“What!” Iida yells, his eyes widening in shock as his hands starts chopping on air almost on instinct, “That’s… that’s preposterous! My brother is an EXEMPLE of a hero and I’m astounded you would even consider this if you really were his own coordination officer-”

“I… I know kid, sorry about this, it was just a routine question,” The officer replies in an apologetic tone, hastily raising his hands up in surrender “We have to ask these sorts of questions to the families of the victims given who ended up… putting him in this state…”

Tenya sucks back his breath, his eyes widening at the officer’s words, his pupils shrinking into pinpricks as his fists tighten his fists to the side.

“So, you know who did this to him.”

The officer flinches at the young man harsh tone, an awkward chuckle escaping his mouth as he sheepishly scratches the back of his neck.

“Ah… I probably shouldn’t have told you that…” The officer replies with another awkward chuckle, “We… we have an inkling given the… modus operandi and the body of the other hero they found alongside him-”

Tenya’s mind instantly goes blank, acting on pure instinct as he almost dashes toward the officer, his hands going to the officer’s shirt and bodily raising him into the air.

“Who did this to him?” He says in between gritted teeth, his despair over his brother condition, his anger over his impotency funnelling into one, singular desire, “Tell me who did this to him or I swear I-”

“Jeez jeez, fine ok kid,” The officer hastily replies, “It’s not like it’s a big secret or anything, I’m sure the media will have a field day over this starting tomorrow…”

“It was the Hero Killer: Stain.” The officer says with a shrug, Tenya instantly dropping him back down on the floor at his words, “Nasty piece of work that one, we’ve been trying to get our claws on him ever since he started his “crusade” years ago, knowing your brother he probably managed to find a lead on him and tried to save the hero he had been hunting at the time-”

“With the results we can see today.” The officer says with a frown, his eyes getting back to Tensei’s motionless form on the bed. “Man, I’ve seen plenty a hero fall in the line of duty, and it never gets any easier…”

“He hasn’t… He is not dead yet!” Tenya bites back with almost a growl, an uncomfortable feeling pooling in his stomach, “He’s my brother, he’s Ingenium, he will not go down so easily, I… I know this, I know he’ll be back with us in no time and will return to his agency faster than we can blink, I’m sure of it!”

“Ah, young people, always so optimistic, it almost breaks my heart to see them when they face the bitter reality we live in,” The officer says with a self-deprecating smile, “But is a lie any better to live in I wonder?”

“A lie…?” Tenya asks, nerves frying as he stares down the officer in front of him, “What do you mean with-”

“I’ve seen his medical records, as I’m sure you’ve seen too,” The officer continues with a smirk, “His spine is broken, snapped in half almost, it’s a miracle if he’ll ever wake up at all from this coma, and even then, I highly doubt he’ll ever be able to walk again.”

Tenya draws in a sharp breath at the man’s words, his eyes widening as he’s faced with the truth, the one he had tried so hard to deny, to reject ever since he had seen is brother in that hospital bed.

That unless a miracle happened…

His brother was probably going to lose everything he had built his life for.

“Anyway, my job is done here,” He says, snapping back to an almost jovial tone “And I could really use some cheap coffee right now, do you know any good vending machines in the area?”

Tenya doesn’t answer, still lost in his own grief, the officer simply shrugging at his apparent unresponsiveness before moving toward the door, dark thoughts swarming in Tenya’s brain all the while.

“And don’t worry kid,” The officer says, one foot already out of the door, a wide, reassuring smile appearing on his lips, “I’m sure that we’re going to get the bastard who did this to your brother soon, one way or another…”

“Catching him soon huh …?” Tenya mutters beneath his breath as the officer leaves the room, “A monster that has been eluding the commission for years, and he says they are going to catch him soon…”

He turns toward his brother’s still comatose body, the thought of the one who dared do this to him, to them, to their mother making Tenya’s blood boil, his fingers digging into his palms, almost drawing out blood.

“ _Not even he could stop him_ …” Tenya grimly thinks, a sigh escaping his lips, “ _And now that monster is out there still, ready to strike again…_ ”

“ _Someone else is going to lose their brother,”_ Tenya realizes grimly, one, single tear appearing onto his left eyes and streaming down his cheek, dropping against the floor below, the sound almost resonating within the cold hospital room, “ _Someone else is about to lose their hero… because no one has decided to stop that monster yet, no one has managed to_ \- _to stop him yet, the commission, the heroes, the police, no one has done anything and that… that monster is still out there free to destroy any family he likes! That’s- that’s not fair, that’s not how things should be at all!”_

A second tear falls, disappearing mid-air before it can even hit the ground, only to fall into a vast ocean, somewhere far away and yet so close to that hospital room, so similar to many other hospital rooms out there, and yet so different, as the teardrop collides against the water’s surface, ripples forming all around it as a blue butterfly flutters worriedly straight above it.

“ _Well,_ _if no one has decided to make it fair, I will be the one who will! I will be the one who shall destroy that- that bastard’s life, just like he did my brother!”_

The stray thought, his own and yet so unlike him, takes front and centre in Tenya’s mind, his eyes narrowing as a dark conviction settles within him, a grim resolve to make the one who dared do this to them pay, his brain already devising a course of action, the easiest, the fastest path that would have led him to his new goal, his new purpose in life.

After all, Iida Tenya loved his brother, and he would have done anything for him.

No matter the cost.

* * *

“And so, more and more pawns reveal themselves.”

A lone figure mutters darkly as he hunches over the rooftop edge, wide eyes fixed on the scene playing in the hospital window below, one hand gripping at the sword’s hilt at his side.

“Fake Heroes could only be helped by Fake Police Officers after all…” he continues, hate filled eyes fixed on the figure talking to what he assumed was a relative of one of his most recent victim, “No one else has realized this. No one else is doing anything to stop this. How far does the rot spread? for how long will I have to dispense my justice to those wicked pawns before I rid the world of them? How many will they corrupt with their filth and taint-”

Without even looking behind him, the lone swordsman unsheathes his sword with one fluid motion, aiming it at something behind him and thrusting backward.

“Wouldn’t expect you to come check on one of your victims, Hero Killer: Stain.” A voice drawls from behind him, seemingly unbothered by the sword pointed at where his chest should be, “A hunter coming to see the result of his handywork after a successful hunt, perhaps?”

“I always check on the families of my victims, be them my prey or simple… collateral damage,” The hero killer mutters darkly, turning briefly toward the new arrival on his roof, a mass of yellow eyed dark mist waiting for him, “You might never know what someone might reveal to you, in what they must think is the darkest moment of their lives.”

“Are you another pawn, here to bring me to this society so called justice?” The Hero Killer continues with a growl, red eyes fixed on the mist person’s yellow slits, “You don’t… feel like one of my usual preys, no matter how similar you might look to them, so what do you want from me?”

“You’re not an easy man to find,” the dark mist drawls in a neutral tone, “And yet everyone is already talking about you, obfuscating the so-called fame that farce of a Sports Festival seems to be amassing, such infamy needs to be better… explored, don’t you think?”

“And I know someone who is just dying to meet you.”

The dark mist expands, Stain having barely the time to retract his sword and enter a defensive position before he is engulfed by it as the two figures swiftly disappeared from the rooftop, leaving no trace of their presence behind.

* * *

“Ladies and Gentlefolk, we’re back again for the next match in our beloved Sports Festival!”

“It’s about damn time,” Bakugou growls under his breath from his position on the far edge of class 1-A booth, “Been waiting long enough for all of these extras to get on with their shit, didn’t even disqualify that round faced cheater after what she pulled with that loser’s quirk-”

“Way to be a sore loser, dude…” Kirishima says with an awkward chuckle. “Come on man, cheer up, I’ll do my best to avenge your wounded pride you during my fight against Uraraka later, ok?”

“Do whatever you want, I don’t care either way,” Bakugou growls back, his eyes narrowing at Kirishima unasked for optimism, his previous blind rage now seemingly replaced by apathy as he stares at the ring below.

“Crap, did we miss anything?” Ashido hastily interjects as she and half the class come back to their booth.

“Nah, it hasn’t even started yet,” Kirishima shoots back in an easy tone, instantly turning back from Bakugou to address his other classmates, “How’s Midoriya doing by the way? He got us everyone worried up here!”

Bakugou instantly tunes them all out with a barely supressed growl, his attention getting back to the ring below.

“ _Deku Deku Deku Deku, all those extras always talk about is shitty fucking Deku”_ He thinks, a vein popping off his forehead, “ _Shitty nerd keeps stealing my thunder. First, he hides his stupid shitty Quirk from me, next he humiliates me by using my own explosions against me, then he is the one who gets taken seriously by that half n’ half bitch, and then not happy about that he out and gives it to that cheating round face so she could defeat me!”_

“He’s fine, just fatigued after that little firework display he did,” Ashido says with a cheeky grin, sitting back near Kirishima with a hum, “Man, that sure was intense, I almost worried for Yaoyorozu there for a second…”

“ _He was supposed to be just a pebble on my oath to the number one spot,”_ Bakugou keeps thinking, almost growling loudly at his thoughts. “ _And now he keeps stealing all my well-deserved victories from me…”_

“I know right? Going all out right at the last second, that was so freaking manly!” Kirishima instantly interjects with a jovial tone, turning back toward Bakugou, “Right dude? Thinking about it, you’re the one who knows him the longest here, had he always been so showy with that Quirk of his?”

That was apparently the wrong thing to ask, a second vein popping on Bakugou’s brow as he snarls back at his classmate, full teeth showing.

“Who the fuck cares about that fucking nerd.” He sneers back at Kirishima, flashes of a young Bakugou sitting in the middle of a shallow bog, a worried Izuku offering his hand to him coming to his mind. “With his stupid speeches and his shitty quirk, he’s just as a useless nerd as he was back then.”

Kirishima chuckles awkwardly at his classmate’s words, one hand tentatively coming to Bakugou’s shoulder and squeezing it.

“Come on man, don’t be so harsh-”

“And yet that useless nerd as you call him that still managed to get into the top eight!” Ashido shoots back with a scowl, interrupting her friend as she glares at him, “Which we can’t say the same thing for you, Mr. “Lost to a girl right at the beginning of the tournament””

“Didn’t you also finish only in the Top 16, Ashido?” Kirishima mumbles back, completely ignored by the two squabbling classmates at his sides, “It’s not that manly to throw stones at glass houses girl...”

“Oh, you want to have a go racoon eyes?!” Bakugou shoots back with another snarl, almost shooting back up on his feet with a scowl, before spotting a familiar figure staring back at him from the other side of the booth, “And what are you looking at, you cheating round face! Had that been a real fight I would have blasted you to hell!”

“Oh _non non non_ stop that, no one likes a sore loser, _Mon Ami!_ ” Aoyama shoots back in a confident tone, only to instantly startle at Bakugou’s low growl aimed at him.

Kirishima sighs as the class devolves into an argument all around him, the young man shrinking back into his seat.

“That’s what I get for wanting to include Bakugou into a conversation…”

* * *

The fight is as depressingly one sided as Shinso’s previous match, if on the opposite side this time.

Izuku winces in sympathy as the Class 1-B student instantly spins onward as soon as Midnight gave the start of the match, one rotating fist hitting Shinso’s square in the face before even having the time to even begin speaking, his body slamming backward out of the ring into a messy heap.

“Oh dear, it seems we’re going to have another guest today,” Recovery Girl hums as she sees the action alongside Izuku, Todoroki and a depowered All Might, “Shouldn’t take too long this one at least, I’m sure a little smooch will help him recover him in no time.”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly at the old woman words, a small sense of relief filling him at her assurance his friend will be all right, as the

“Well, ladies and gentlefolks, after this whirlwind victory for class 1-B’s Kaibara Sen, it’s time for a real David and Goliath fight!”

“Who do you think is going to win this one?” Todoroki asks in a subdued tone, his eyes moving back to Izuku with a small frown, “I understand you and Asui were together during the USJ incident, but Shoji is also a member of your team during the cavalry battle-”

“Yeah-” Izuku admits with a frown, “I… I honestly don’t know, as you said they’re both my friends, I’d… I’d like for both of them to pass to the next part of the tournament-”

“Ah, but unfortunately there can be only one Number One, Young Midoriya.” All Might shoots back with a small smile, “This festival is set to simulate that same environment real heroes have to face evert day on the field, one of contestant competition between colleagues and equals.”

“And second place never meant anything in a world like that,” Todoroki concludes with a small shrug, his tone almost mechanically repeating someone’s else words.

“Well, I… I don’t think it should be that way-” Izuku mutters with his own shrug, “It’s a big country after all, and we’re all working to make it safer and better, we should be start doing it together rather than competing one against another-”

“Wise words, Young Midoriya,” All Might concedes with a small smile, “Unfortunately, that’s how things are right now, you’ll just have to work hard to change them when you yourself become a Pro Hero.”

Tsuyu and Shoji enter the ring, squaring each other up as Present Mic present each of them once again, the crowd cheering loudly in the large television in front of them.

“Still, if I really have to make an impartial prediction on who’s going to win this one based on each of their Quirks…” Izuku begins with a frown, a notebook magically appearing in his hands from god knows where as he started scratching feverishly on it with a pen.

“I’d say the favourite to win is probably-”

A loud blare resonates in the room as Midnight gives the signal to begin the match, Tsuyu instantly leaping forward, her tongue already out and aiming at Shoji’s masked face. The hit connects against his throat, hastily retracting back before Shoji can make a grab at it, Tsuyu dropping on Shoji’s large back and instantly leaping back off.

Shoji turns quickly, three massive fists slamming against the ground where Tsuyu had been till then, the young woman hastily leaping back up and dropping back on Shoji’s head, perching on top of it before leaping back up before he can make a grab at her.

Now mid-air, Tsuyu’s tongue darts downward once more, wrapping against his hand before darting downward like a slingshot toward him, two kicks connecting against his back once more, her tongue getting back into her mouth before she leaps off him.

“Shoji’s Quirk allows him a great combination of strength and resistance,” Izuku mutters under his breath, loud enough for everyone else to hear, “Tsuyu, on the other hand, seems to have the advantage on speed and dexterity here. She needs to be constantly on the move and try to chip him off via rapid attacks, multiple times, hoping to find an opening in his defences.”

Before Shoji can even turn, Tsuyu’s tongue darts out toward one of his legs, the young woman pulling and tripping Shoji, his many arms extending onward and preventing him from falling face first onto the ground.

Her tongue sneaks back in her mouth, the young woman leaping back into his back and dropkicking it once more, her tongue sneaking out once more and wrapping against Shoji’s neck, squeezing.

Shoji manages to raise himself back up into a standing position, two hands instantly going to Tsuyu’s constricting tongue and gripping, the young man bucking his back wildly as Tsuyu sticks to it with her Quirk.

Shoji drops backward, trying to squash Tsuyu against the ground below, the young woman instantly leaping off his back to safety because she can be turned into a frog legs pancake under his weight, Shoji readjusting himself back into a hunched standing position soon after.

“Meanwhile, all Shoji needs to do is just give her a good hit, and only do it once.” Izuku continues muttering, his eyes fixed on the screen in front of him, tunnel vision completely hyper-focused on it.

“Good to see he’s the same as ever even while bedridden,” Shinso comments with a small chuckle, hissing slightly as Recovery Girl checks on his black eye before sloppily smooching him right on the cheek, his eye slowly healing back via her Quirk.

“S- Shinso!” Izuku startles at the familiar, unexpected voice, “I… I didn’t notice you, how long have you been-”

“Around the first infodump about Tsuyu’s chances of victory,” Shinso comments with a shrug, Izuku’s cheeks reddening slightly at his words, “You do realize you mutter so loudly you’re drowning out Present Mic’s commentary, right?”

Izuku’s blush deepens, a dejected look on his face as he averts his gaze from everyone present in the room.

“S- sorry, people have been t- telling me to don’t mutter all m- my life and… I s- should have listened to t- them sooner” Izuku mumbles, loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear, “I’ll try to be m- quieter f- from now on-”

“Crap, no, wait, that wasn’t what I was saying at all.” Shinso begins, a startled look on his face. A frustrated groan escapes his lips, his tired eyes closing as air escapes his mouth.

“Look, Midoriya, you can… you can mutter all you like.” Shinso says, his face schooled back into a neutral, almost uncaring expression, “Knock yourself out, I’m sure you’re not bothering anyone-”

“Well, as… as long as I’m not… creeping any of my friends out-” Izuku mumbles back with a small smile, “Wouldn’t… wouldn’t want them to think I’m weird or anything-”

“Eh, too late for that.” Shinso replies with a snort. “Face it Midoriya, you are weird, but guess what? So is everyone else in this class.”

“Like, I’m a perpetually insomniac teenager with mind control powers, Todoroki over there went from hating your guts to want to spend the sports festival with you no matter what after being allegedly replaced by pre-schooler version of himself, and we’re all currently watching some Frog on Octopus violence on screen.”

“Your muttering is probably one of the most normal things in our lives really,” Shinso concludes with a shrug, “

“Well, I don’t mind the muttering either way,” Todoroki butts in with his own shrug, his tone and expression as neutral as ever, “I say your commentary is probably better than the official one anyway, at least you’re trying to stay professional-”

“You better not let Present Mic hear you say that,” All Might comments with a small grin, only for it to fall as a worried frown creases his brow, “Speaking of the match-”

Tsuyu’s tongue darts onward once more, but this time Shoji is faster, Tsuyu’s pattern is more predictable as three of the young man’s many hands shoot forward, grasping at Tsuyu’s tongue before she can retract it back, a surprised ribbit escaping Tsuyu’s mouth as Shoji pulls her toward him.

As Tsuyu is roughly dislodged from the ground, Shoji dashes toward her at incredible speeds, her tongue still in his hands. She leaps upward, forced to jump over his charging form before she is promptly slammed back onto the ground with a strangled ribbit.

Two of Shoji’s hands grip at Tsuyu’s head, gripping and slamming her back into the concrete below, holding her down for another couple seconds before instantly releasing her, hastily coming away from her now motionless body as Midnight comes to their side, signalling for Shoji’s victory.

“Brutally efficient,” Todoroki comments with a small frown, “If not… particularly popular with the audience it seems.”

The television switches to a view of the jeering crowds, booing Shoji as he meekly kneels beside Tsuyu’s passed out body, his large arms enveloping her into his grasp as he gently places her onto a nearby Stretcher Bot.

“Hope… Hope she’s alright.” Izuku mumbles with a worried sigh, his eyes fixed on the screen as Tsuyu is removed away from the ring, Shoji following suit, “She’s been really pumped over… over this whole tournament, It’s… it’s so unfair she didn’t manage to move further than this-”

“Look at those hypocrites,” Shinso mutters under his breath in a dark tone, startling Izuku slightly as his tired, yellowish eyes glare at the scene unfolding in front of him.

“They’re all for students beating the crap out of one another until the one getting the crap out of is a cute, marketable girl, blaming him for not _holding back_.” He continues in a frustrated tone, “They weren’t so vocal when that guy punched me straight out of the ring, uh? I bet- I bet if Tsuyu’s and Shoji’s mutation quirks had been reverted with her being the one far more monstrous than him, they would all be cheering him on right now.”

Izuku doesn’t know what to say, the crowds’ hollering once again placated by Aizawa arguing with the jeering crowds into submission as he attempted to defuse the situation, Present Mic being once again as useful as a hammer made of glass in the scenario as he kept doing absolutely nothing to placate the crowds.

“That’s… that’s not very fair to Tsuyu either, Shinso,” Izuku finally manages to spit out, startling Shinso out of his dark musings, “Just because- Just because she might look more human than Shoji that doesn’t mean she might not be suffering his same struggles sometimes, both as a future heroine or someone saddled with a frig quirk.”

“Heck, she’s facing her own struggle right now,” Izuku says, his eyes narrowing as he turns back toward the now fortunately subdued crowds, “This is just like back during Uraraka’s fight, those… those people are patronizing her by thinking she’s just a “cute, marketable girl” like- like you said, and are not seeing how resourceful she’d been till now, they are only… only seeing her one mistake, and the strength of Shoji’s retaliation.”

“It does seem pretty patronizing.” Todoroki confirms with a hum, frowning at the screen in front of them. “Asui and Uraraka as you said are going to be a heroine s someday, do those so-called Pro Heroes really expecting all the villains they’re going to face are going to be going easy on them?”

“That would surely save me a lot of headaches in the future, Kero.”

“Tsuyu!” Izuku exclaims, the young woman being brought into the room by the stretcher bots, a worried Shoji in tow, “How- How are you doing? Are you alright?!”

“Please don’t shout Midoriya, kero.” Tsuyu says with a wince, the young woman being hoisted up on a nearby infirmary bed, “My head is killing me, kero.”

“Oh now now dearie, no need to worry about that.” Recovery Girl buts in with a chuckle, waddling at her side and giving one, sloppy kiss to her brow, speeding up Tsuyu’s healing process as she did so, “See, all better! Now get a gummy bear and move along back to your class, I’m already having far too many people in my poor infirmary for my tastes.”

“A- Asui…” One of Shoji mouths sheepishly begins, a worried frown appearing on his masked face as he towers over the now sitting young woman, “How- How are you doing? I- I had no intention to hurt you s- so badly-”

“Eh, could be worst, kero,” Tsuyu replies with a shrug, “Did anyone ever tell you you hit like a literal truck Shoji, kero? For a split second after you slammed me against the ground kero, I was worried I was about to die and get sent into some faraway fantasy land to defeat the local demon lord, kero.”

“S- sorry, I had no idea I-” One of Shoji’s mouth begins in a worried tone, only to be instantly silenced by a hasty ribbit coming from Tsuyu.

“No, don’t be sorry kero,” Tsuyu replies with a shake of her head, “That was on me, you caught me slipping kero, and you respected my strength enough to go all out on me Kero. You have nothing to be sorry for, kero.”

“If this count for anything, I think she’s right.” Todoroki replies with a shrug, “And so does Midoriya, right Midoriya?”

“Y- yes!” Izuku says, startled slightly as he’s roped back into the conversation, “W- well, I think you both did great, and while I’m- I’m sad Tsuyu couldn’t move forward in the tournament, I’m also happy you could really show the world how- how powerful you are Shoji.”

“And you also managed to get father than anyone else on our team,” Shinso shoots back with a small grin, his previous foul mood lifting slightly, “You’ll have to win the tournament for all of us now, show those- those vultures what you’re really capable of, hold the name of Team Shinso high you know?”

“I… I thought we were supposed to be Team Midoriya?” Izuku mumbles back with a sheepish chuckle, “But… he’s right Shoji. You did great, no matter what… what anyone else might say.”

Shoji’s eyes stare intently at the people in front of him, a long, relieved sigh escaping one of his mouth as it smiles slightly.

“Thank you all, I will not let any of you down,” Shoji replies, his tone getting even and measured, “And sorry again for the… smashed head against the pavement, Asui.”

“Stop apologizing so much Shoji, you’re starting to sound like Midoriya, kero” Tsuyu says with a shrug, startling Izuku slightly with her words, “And please, call me Tsuyu. You defeated me on national television, it’s the least you can do.”

“Oh, sorry Tsuyu.” Shoji apologizes again, a sheepish chuckle escaping one of his mouths, “I… I’ll be going now, don’t want to bother you all or Recovery Girl more than I already have-”

“Oh, no worries dearie, you’re not bothering anyone,” Recovery Girl says in a gentle tone, “But you and Asui here should go back up to your classmates, they might be getting worried over you both.”

“May I stay here actually, kero?” Tsuyu shoots back with a frown, “I’m… I’m feeling sleepy after you used your Quirk on me, I wouldn’t want to collapse on my way to our booth, Kero.”

“Oh, yeah, same here,” Shinso hastily says, his smirk getting cheeky, “I think a couple more hours in this infirmary would do wonders for both my poor, sore black eye. Hell, I think I can still feel it sting a little-”

A long-suffering sigh escapes Recovery Girl’s mouth, her eyes scrounging closed as she mutters something under her breath, fortunately enough too low for anyone to hear.

“This infirmary is not a youth hostel, you know?” Recovery Girl mutters darkly as she turns back toward Shinso and Tsuyu. “Both of you have made a full recovery already, which means if you want to stay here you’ll have to be done as guests to my only patient, which means I’m allowing only three visitors per patient at a time, not one more.”

“W- well, then I guess that’s my cue to leave then.” Toshinori says with a nervous chuckle as he eyes the diminutive woman with a worried frown, “See, that way Young M- My young apprentice can have three of his friends there with him. I bet he’d greatly prefer that, right Midoriya?”

“S- sure thing Al- T- Toshinori-” Izuku stammers back with an awkward chuckle, “I m- mean, if they want to- to stay here let them do it please, I promise we won’t b- bother you Recovery G- Girl-”

“Fine fine, have it your way you babbling, bumbling band of baboons,” Recovery Girl simply sighs in defeat, shooing Shoji and All Might out of the room, “But this is the last one I’m allowing in, you get it Toshi?”

“I swear on everything is holy, the next person who tries to strongarm me into staying in my infirmary without even a bruise I will give them a reason to be stuck on one of my beds, got it?”

* * *

“And now, here’s for the last match of the quarterfinals!”

The crowd cheers loudly as Uraraka and Kirishima walk onto their respective sides of the ring, a matching pair of determined frowns on each of their faces.

“She has amazed everyone with her surprise Quirk and indomitable will in her last match, will her opponent be yet another steppingstone in her raise to greatness, or will her cookie be destined to crumble under the hard weight of her opponent?!”

“I guess this is a rematch from Battle Training,” Kirishima says as he positions himself into a battle stance on his own side of the field, “You’ll find out you will not take me down so easily this time!”

“We’ll see about that, Kirishima!” Uraraka shoots back, attempting her own makeshift battle stance as a tense silence pervades the two opponents, “A lot of people are counting on me to win this tournament, the least I can do is give them a fight they’ll all remember!”

“So manly…” Kirishima trails off under his breath, his eyes fixed on Uraraka as Midnight finally signals the start of the match.

“AND BEGIN!”

“Persona!” Uraraka wastes no time, rushing forward with her palms outstretched as she throws her card at her opponent. Blue flames erupt from it as Bradamante glides onward, sword at the ready as she lunges at Kirishima, his arm already hardened as he easily deflects her blow.

Bradamante glides upward on glass stained wings, Uraraka appearing from behind her and lunging at Kirishima, the young man easily deflecting her clumsy, open palmed strike with his arm, sidestepping to the side as Uraraka’s momentum makes her stumble.

“ _Garu_!” Bradamante and Uraraka yell as one, gusts of wind descending downward toward a hardened Kirishima, the young man gritting his teeth as he weathers the supernatural storm he’s currently under, deflecting an open palmed slap from a now turning Uraraka.

“Your Quirks might be amazing, and I’m probably done fore if you manage to hit me just once!” Kirishima grits out, deflecting another wide lunge from Uraraka with his forearms, “But that’s worthless if you’re wide open!”

Taking advantage of another wide lunge, Kirishima manages to deflect her once more and slam his hardened fist into Uraraka’s stomach, the young woman coughing out in pain as saliva erupt from her mouth. Before she can react, Kirishima steps back, avoiding a _gale slash_ coming from above.

“ _M- Media_.” Uraraka grits out, light washing over her and her persona as she attempts another lunge, Bradamante gliding down toward him, rapier ready to lunge downward into a _twin shot_.

“Fighting two on one uh?” Kirishima says with a confident smirk, deflecting Uraraka’s blow as the sword collides harmlessly against his hardened head, “That’s hardly the manly thing to do, but I like those odds!”

He karate chops Uraraka’s head, a hiss of pain escaping her mouth as Bradamante’s own armoured fist descends downward, fruitlessly colliding against Kirishima’s hardened head.

“Break yourself upon my body!” Kirishima gloats as he avoids another of Uraraka’s open-handed slap, the light of Media once again washing over her right before another fist colliding against her stomach before she even has the time to react.

He swipes at her leg, making her fall with a yelp to the ground before he attempts to stomp her down, the young woman hastily rolling away before getting turned into a pancake splattered against the ring’s floor.

“Garu!” Uraraka yells, Bradamante gliding backwards, positioning herself behind her as wind erupts from her glass-stained wings, Kirishima gritting his teeth as he braces himself for the incoming whirlwind.

Not expecting a now weightless Uraraka getting thrown off the ground toward him, both her hands outstretched onward, carried by the harsh winds toward him.

Kirishima’s eyes widen as Uraraka’s weight suddenly returns to her mid-flight, momentum throwing her onward like a slingshot as she barrels down against his hardened form, her tights encasing the young man’s head into a vice like grip before he can defend himself.

She slams her open palm onto his now defenceless head, his hands hastily coming to grip at her tights, trying to get her off him. As Uraraka loosens her hold, a now sightless and weightless Kirishima is promptly tackled onward by Bradamante.

Uraraka swiftly drops off him, falling to the ground with a pained huff as the young man is quickly shot forward alongside the flying Persona, almost getting launched off the ring.

“Oh no you don’t!” Kirishima grits out, one hand stretched forward as he grabs at Bradamante’s form, trying to remain anchored to something, only for the persona to smirk smugly at him as she erupts into blue flames, disappearing into thin air as Kirishima’s weight suddenly returns to him, momentum dropping him back to the soft grass outside the ring.

“Kirishima is out of bonds, the winner is Uraraka Ochako!” Midnight announces with a smug smile, her words quickly swallowed by the cheering of the crowds.

“Darn it.” Kirishima whines softly, a sigh of defeat escaping his lips even as he gets back on his feet, dusting himself off in the process, “I thought I had it there for a second, I’ll have to train harder for next time.”

“Oh well,” He shrugs, getting back up on the ring as he reaches a still dazed Uraraka, offering his hand to her as she sits idly on the ring, her mouth sealed shut, “You really got me there Uraraka, that last move was a stro ke of genius, didn’t expect that, good job!”

Uraraka gives a strained smile at his words, Kirishima paying her odd behaviour no mind as he offers her his hand to help her get back on his feet, the young man barely paying attention to Present Mic as he praises his apparent show of sportsmanship.

“It’s 2 to 0 for you now, how about we do the best of 5 uh?” Kirishima jokes, a wide smile appearing on his lips as Uraraka’s eyes widen, a weird, purple like coloration spreading on her face as her formerly rosy cheeks start to puff up-

Kirishima doesn’t even have the time to yelp as Uraraka Ochako starts puking rainbows all over his gym uniform’s trousers and shoes.

Right on national television.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I always say, to check the character and relationship tags after every chapter might be considered spoilers.
> 
> Once again, shout out to my Beta Reader SmashingSkunk53.
> 
> Next Up: The semifinals and the finals, probably, as we reach the end of the Sports Festival Arc, and are about to enter a common part of every Persona Game out there, as recuperation after the Sports Festival.
> 
> Golden Week.


	19. Story Event: Tournament Semi-Finals and Finals

A mortified silence sweeps over the small infirmary room, everyone’s eyes fixed on the screen in front of them as Uraraka puked another rainbow onto the ring floor, Kirishima having finally positioned himself away from her.

“Damn, I don’t know who to feel sorrier for.” Shinso is the first to talk, a disbelieving chuckle escaping his mouth, “Kirishima might have lost, but Uraraka just shattered her image as a cute, marketable heroine in one single moment of weakness. How popular is she going to be if there’s the constant risk of her puking on a fellow hero or civilian at any second?”

“More popular than you might think, kero.” Tsuyu cryptically replies with a shrug, “Mt. Lady has made a disaster after another ever since she debuted, yet do you guys have any idea how many gigantification fetishists are giving her their full support?”

“Wait, that’s the reason why she always had all those fans hanging around her home office?” Izuku asks in a bewildered tone, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline, “I thought they just liked her as a heroine or something-”

“Really, kero? You’d never guess from how they were framing it on some of the forums dedicated to her, kero,” Tsuyu says as one finger comes up to her chin. “At least she seems to get off over all the attention she gets kero, can’t say the same for other girls out there kero.”

“You…” Izuku gulps, a weird silence filling the room at Tsuyu’s words, “Are you talking about… anyone in particular or-”

“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for Midoriya, you know exactly who I’m talking about kero,” Tsuyu replies with a sigh, everyone expecting eyes switching back to her, a sigh escaping her lips.

“Back in high school I wrote on a mutation quirk internet forum I was able to puke out my interior organs so I could use them as storage space kero,” Tsuyu admits with an almost defeated sigh, “You have no idea how many weirdos started demanding pictures of me just doing that, kero-”

“W- wait, that was YOU?!” Izuku almost shouts, his eyes wide as he snaps his head toward Tsuyu, everyone’s eyes now turning toward him with various degrees of judgement, “You’re TheFroppy27?!”

“You were one of the weirdos asking for pics of me vomiting out my innards, kero?” Tsuyu replies, her tone only marginally stunned, “Why am I not surprised, kero?

“Dude, first you’re a simp, then we discover you have a stalker shrine to our teacher, and now we find out you’re into-” Shinso’s words fail him, his mouth trying to form a coherent concept as he gestures wildly toward Tsuyu’s general direction, “Reverse Vore? Whatever the fuck that’s supposed to be? Like, I’m really trying to don’t judge you or anything Midoriya but what the fuck?”

“Simp?” Todoroki mumbles beneath his breath in a confused tone, completely ignored by a now sputtering Izuku, his cheeks taking an impossible shade of red, “What’s that?”

“N- No! I’m not into… any of that!” Izuku says, his gaze switching between Tsuyu and Shinso as he attempts to explain himself, “I was just- really curious about her Quirk, I’ve never heard of such a fascinating way for a mutation quirk to develop in one physiology and I wanted a pic for one of my notebooks, I had no idea you were so uncomfortable about it Tsuyu, I’m sorry if I-”

“Don’t worry Midoriya I’m used to it, kero,” Tsuyu interrupts him with a shrug, “I will not think any less than I already think of you, because at least you had way purer motivations compared to some of the other weirdos out there, kero.”

“Still, even with a-” Tsuyu pauses, trying to find the right words, “Yes, even with a fringe cult following of puking enthusiasts forming an impromptu fanbase around her, Uraraka should really get a better grip on her own quirk, least she did end his every fight by puking rainbows on her opponents.”

“Especially if she’s still willing to use Midoriya’s own quirk alongside her own,” Shinso mentions with a pensive hum, giving a sideways glance to his still bedridden classmate, “You said your Quirk takes on your stamina and… magical reserves, right? How much do you think would that influence Uraraka’s own quirk limit?”

“I’ve been thinking about it.” Izuku says with a concerned frown, “I actually believe the exact opposite Shinso. I think Persona could, potentially, expand Uraraka’s own limits, at least when it comes to her ability to make float things, not much herself.”

“How come?” Todoroki butts in the conversation, his own eyebrows narrowing questioningly.

“W- well, Bradamante- That’s Uraraka’s Persona, by the way, anyway Bradamante seems to be capable of using healing skills, as well as a-” Izuku snaps his fingers several times, trying to find the right word for it. “A support skill? It should allow her to heal up freezing or burning effects, as well as the aftereffects of electrical attacks on either herself or someone else, at least from what I understand-”

“That’d be an incredibly powerful skill if she were to use it against, say, me or Kaminari.” Todoroki concedes with a pensive frown, gears turning in his mind. “And a healing quirk- That’s incredibly rare. If any of the pros out there realize she’s capable of healing herself or other people-”

“Still don’t understand how would that help her with Zero Gravity’s limits, kero-” Tsuyu buts in with a small frown, “An healing Quirk might help against the direct consequences of her nausea, but as we could all see that didn’t seem to be of any use when she tried to pick herself up with her own Quirk-”

“T- that’s because she probably hasn’t learned the correct skill for it.” Izuku says with a nervous chuckle, “As- As far as I could see with the persona’s I’ve had till now, most of them have a specific powerset, even when they inherit a previous persona’s powers. T- take Todoroki’s persona for example!”

Todoroki’s eyes widen slightly, Izuku turning toward him with an expectant look on his face. The red- and white-haired young man sigh, producing his own persona card in his hands and handing it to Izuku.

“As- as you can see, Todoroki’s persona seems to be aimed specifically on fire spells.” Izuku begins, a curious Tsuyu and Shinso leaning in toward the card in his hands as Todoroki simply started listening intently from his own seat. “Ice wall here is the only seemingly support skill in this, and it should grant someone resistance to ice from what I remember, but most of the skills here seem to be either magically offensive or in the case of Taunt and Counter aimed at either disrupting an enemy strategy by enraging them or reflecting some of the physical attacks said enraging would comport.”

“Taunt- That must have been the ability those culturists used on Tokoyami and Dark Shadow during the USJ, kero!” Tsuyu butts in, realization colouring her voice, “And I get what you’re trying to say Midoriya, since it seems focused mostly on offensive skills and fire attacks-”

“Then I’m afraid he’s not going to learn many healing skills on its own,” Izuku concludes with a nervous chuckle, sheepishly giving back Todoroki his card, “My first persona, Quixote, on the other hand, seems incapable to learn offensive magical skills, but also gained a lot of buffing and weakening skills alongside it, preferring to go for physical attacks instead, while Uraraka’s persona seems to be a- jack of all trades on that part, focused partially on wind spells and healing abilities alongside the physical attacks, meaning there could be the high chance she’d be able to obtain a skill that’d allow her to-”

“- To overcome her sickness sooner, kero.” Tsuyu concludes for him with a ribbit, “That sure is convenient. You think at some point you’ll also find a skill to prevent yourself from getting bedridden after every major fight, kero?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for…” Izuku mutters with a weary sigh, his eyes turning back toward the screen. With the corner of his eye, he could see Todoroki’s pensive frown, his eyes still fixed on the persona card in his hands.

Before Izuku could open his mouth to ask him anything, however, a loud horn blared in the infirmary room. The screen finally shows Yaoyorozu and the last class 1-B student in the tournament, Kaibara Sen, as they walked on each side of the ring, as Present Mic finally announces the start of the semi-finals.

* * *

“Ladies and Gentlefolks, give it out for our semi-finalists!”

The crowd cheers wildly, Yaoyorozu and Kaibara facing each other on the two sides of the ring, each taking their own, readied battle stance.

“Come on Kaibara, I want you to beat that ugly tho-!” Monoma’s voice begins to loudly cheer from the 1-B’s booth only to be pre-emptively smacked over the head by an enlarged hand, “What was that for, Kendo?!”

“New class rule effective immediately: No insulting other girls, not even if they’re from class 1-A.” Kendo swiftly replies, her own eyes narrowing at Monoma from her own seat, “Don’t think I don’t remember you insulting those Class 1-A girls earlier in the cavalry battle! That would make you no better than some of those same class 1-A you claim to despise.”

“Not my fault if Present Mic kept focusing only on them rather than on us.” Monoma mutters with a pout, gently massaging the top of his head and the small bump he could already feel forming, “We’re all way more fabulous than any of those wannabe heroines-”

“This still doesn’t give you the right to be a little bitch about it.” Kodai buts in, her face a mask of absolute neutrality, her tone soft, slightly startling her classmates around her with her unprompted rudeness, “Especially considering how some of those wannabe heroines happened to kick all of our asses earlier-”

“What Kodai said,” Kendo replies with a shrug, “Listen, I know you are- very passionate about this rivalry thing, and honestly we are too, but please try to be less shitty about it unless you want to end up like that jackass from class 1-A and makes us all look bad by comparison.”

“Ok ok, fine, jeez!” Monoma replies with a sigh, the back of his hand coming to his brow as he overdramatically poses, “I will not degrade our class in such a manner. I’ve lost track of our true objective, which is cheering for our fellow classmate in today’s match, thank you Kendo for reminding me.”

“There, see, that wasn’t so hard.” Kendo replies with a small smile, “Good boy.”

Monoma’s cheeks instantly redden, the young man turning back hastily toward the ring below as he valiantly ignores the few snickers of some of his other classmates.

“ _Whipped_ ,” Tetsutetsu singsongs under his breath, only to promptly shut up the second Kendo turns back toward him, a sharp glare aimed at her fellow classmate.

“What was that, Tetsutetsu?” Kendo asks in an overly sweet tone, belied by the steel currently present in her eyes as she glares down at her classmate.

A faint blush starts spreading on his cheeks even as he vehemently denies he had ever spoken a word ever in his life, to anyone, at all.

“That’s what I thought.”

* * *

“I assume you’re here to defend the honour of your class now that you’re the last one remaining in the tournament,” Yaoyorozu says from across the field, already unzipping her gym suit, “It’s a noble endeavour, one I can even share, but my honour and future is also at stake here, so I’m afraid I’ll be forced to go all out on you. I’m here to win this tournament, and win it big, both for myself and my family’s name.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, miss.” Kaibara simply replies, his own eyes narrowing ever so slightly as they remained trained on her own eyes, “But just like you, I’m here to win this tournament, and I don’t care how fancy or versatile your Quirk might be, there is still one absolute truth in the universe not even you or your powerful family or your Quirk can deny.”

“Which is?” Yaoyorozu asks in genuine confusion, her position slightly faltering as she furrows her brows in wonder.

“That no matter what will you try to pull on me today, your reaction timing when creating object is poorer than you might think it is, which it will still give me enough time to begin on spinning,” Kaibara replies with a confident smirk on his face, “And when I start to spin-”

“AND BEGIN!”

“I spin to win!” In a whirlwind of movement, Kaibara tornadoes toward Yaoyorozu the second Midnight gives the signal for the start of the match.

The young woman falters slightly in surprise at his incredible speed before finally starting to produce something out of her now exposed cleavage.

A large metal slab is hastily obtained, the young woman fortuitously positioning it between herself and her opponent as he collides against it with a rotating fist, the young woman standing her ground.

The metal slab starts cracking, Yaoyorozu hastily abandoning it as she drops to the side as Kaibara breaks through it. His fist collides against the ground where she had once been, leaving a small crater behind.

Before she can even think, Kaibara bounces toward her, whole body gyrating as his rotating speed becomes fast enough to catch her unaware as one rotating fist collides against her exposed abdomen, an uppercut managing to send her flying off into the air, right toward the nearby edge of the ring.

“Oh no you don’t!” Yaoyorozu yells, a hooked chain appearing on her right arm from her own flesh.

“Get over here!” She yells as she hastily throws it at Kaibara’s spinning form, the long chain wrapping around his spinning arm as she pulls. Her own momentum dying as she manages to drop right on the edge of the ring, the young woman taking a couple step forward away from it.

The chain is getting tangled on Kaibara’s arm, the young man pulling with all the strength his spinning can afford him, Yaoyorozu’s grip on the chain slipping as it comes barrelling down against him, whipping him straight in the face.

“What is this?!” He curses, one now unspinning hand coming to his bloodied nose as he holds it. He hastily stops in the gyrating of his other arm, the kunai currently grappled against his chest making the end of the chain whip around wildly with every rotation as his own, bloodshot eyes open slightly as he quickly rotates away to the sight, dodging an impromptu sleep dart coming from Yaoyorozu’s hastily conjured gun.

He’s fast enough to spin away from several bullets, the young man unfortunately too busy with his dodging to properly count how many had she shot till now. He’s trying to tether closer and closer to Yaoyorozu with every dodge, each of her shots getting more and more frantic as he keeps on dodging her every shot.

He leaps forward, his left arm returning to spin as the gun finally clicks on empty, fist aimed once again at her exposed abdomen. Before he can connect however, he has to quickly spin away from his trajectory in mid-air, his bloodshot eyes widening as his opponent narrowly misses her strike, a large mallet avoiding his head by a breath.

The mallet crashes against the ground below, the head exploding as it propels Yaoyorozu up into the air. Kaibara is forced to give chase as he spins upward toward her, left fist still spinning, only for a large anvil to erupt from the young woman’s bosom.

Kaibara’s eyes widen once more as she drops down toward him with it, the young man hastily spinning to the side to avoid it, only for on of Yaoyorozu’s hands to swiftly grab at the chain still embed into his right arm, pulling him down with her with a tug as Kaibara barely has the time to scream as he’s dropped down on the hard concrete of the ring below them alongside Yaoyorozu and her anvil.

“Not done yet-” Kaibara begins in between pained breaths, already swiftly standing back up from the small crater he had landed in, only for Yaoyorozu hit him right in the gut with a promptly produced metal baseball bat. The young man doubles over in pain as a second strike hit him right in the still bleeding nose, knocking him out cold with a sickening crunch.

“A- and stay down.” Yaoyorozu comments in between her own, laboured breaths while barely registering as Midnight reaches them and declares her victory after assessing Kaibara’s unconsciousness, the crowd cheering loudly at her success.

* * *

“Damn, Yaomomo is ruthless when she wants to.” Ashido comments from the 1-A spectator booth, a nervous chuckle escaping her mouth at the spectacle unfolding below them. “I’m kinda glad now Midori ended up beating me before I ended up facing her, who knows what she would have pulled on me-”

“Man, I wish I could say the same thing,” Sero complains from his own seat. “At least you could show off some of your moves in your first match Ashido, and the public seemed to like you well enough, I got taken out like a chump before I could really show off anything, who’s ever going to send any internships to me now-”

“You know guys, maybe you shouldn’t complain about this kind of stuff,” Jiro butts in with a sigh, “At least the lot of you managed to get into the tournament proper. Some of us can’t even say the same-”

“Oh crap you’re right!” Ashido exclaims as her eyes widen, “Crap, I’m sorry guys, it wasn’t our intention to rub salt in the wound-”

“Do not worry yourself with us dredges, Ashido,” Tokoyami begins with a brooding frown and a shrug. “This is but a taste of the harsh reality of heroism, we should all use this lost opportunity to better ourselves for the challenges to come, so to better stand up in next year sports festival.”

“You know what man, you’re right!” Kaminari butts in with a smirk, “We might have lost the cavalry battle or maybe the first matches of the tournament, but that’s not the end for any of us! I’m sure we’re still going to score plenty of internships after this tournament!”

“Yeah!” The group of friends instantly cheers at his words, fists raised in the air, as Uraraka and Shoji make their way to the respective sides of the ring.

* * *

“It’s Beauty versus the Beast today ladies and gentlefolk! Who’s going to come out on top and get their shot at glory in today’s finals? Let’s find out!”

“You okay, Uraraka?” one of Shoji’s mouths asks in a concerned tone, the young woman steeling herself on her own side of the ring, “You look kind of pale and I wouldn’t want you to throw up again, are you sure it wouldn’t be better for you to give-”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Uraraka shoots back, a strained grin on her face, “I’m completely fine, no need for recovery girl when you can heal yourself with your own Quirk, so worry about yourself instead.”

“Ok.” Shoji says after a small pause, shrugging slightly as he positions himself into a fighting stance, “I guess we could consider this a rematch for the cavalry battle then, but don’t think you’ll be able to get to me as easily as last time.”

“Think what you want,” Uraraka shoots back as she wobbles herself into position, “Just know that whatever it happens, I’m not going to back down!”

“AND BEGIN!”

Uraraka dashes forward, Bradamante appearing in a burst of flames behind her as Shoji rushes toward her in turn, all six arms outstretched.

They manage to meet up midway, three of Shoji’s massive fists slamming down on Uraraka, only for her to hastily dive to the side at the last second, the fists colliding against the ground, leaving a crater behind.

“Gotcha!” Uraraka yells, leaping toward her opponent as she grabs at his exposed arm, Shoji’s weight failing him as Bradamante armoured form slams into his back, launching him into the air, “ _Garu!_ ”

The air draft is strong, blowing his massive form away as he fruitlessly attempts to reach to the ground below as the young man crashes like a meteor against the stadium wall with a groan, weight returning to him soon after as the crowd returned cheering back for Uraraka’s victory.

“This was for you, Asui.” Uraraka comments with a large smile, right fist raised to the air as she bathes in the cheering of the crowds.

One of her eyes closing as the ever-present headache she’d been having since her battle with Kirishima only worsens, Bradamante gliding back to her side with a concerned frown on her face.

“ _Media_.” Uraraka says, the Persona following her command soon after as the warm light washes over them.

It brings little relief to her, even as it settles down her slightly upset stomach, a sigh escaping her lips.

“ _I’m running on fumes right now, on both of my Quirks,”_ she thinks with a frown, stepping down the ring as she goes toward her opponent, “ _I’ll have to finish this quickly if I don’t want to collapse or throw up again-_ ”

She offers one hand with a smile, all previous discomfort or pain is hidden expertly beneath it as she shakes her opponent’s hand, Bradamante disappearing into a burst of blue flames at her side with a long-suffering sigh.

“ _I can do this._ ” Uraraka thinks as her brows narrow, almost managing to convince herself. “ _I’ll just need to do my best, and I can do everything, let alone win this tournament!”_

“ _So, watch me Deku, Asui, Mom, Dad, everyone out there-”_ Uraraka keeps thinking as she steels herself, moving back to prepare herself for the next and final match.

_“Because I’m heading for the top!”_

* * *

“My student has gotten even better than I expected.”

In a large office somewhere in the city, a tall, green-haired man sits surrounded by All Might’s merchandise as he amiably watches something on his computer from behind his large desk.

One cup of tea is in his hands, the UA’s third years’ Sports Festival’s live stream unfolding in front of his very eyes.

His tone, while still very subdued, is much alike the one a mother hen would use talking at length about a prized hatchling who had managed to exceed even her own wildest expectations.

A faint, almost pleased smile is set on his otherwise serious features, the man witnessing first-hand as his student receiving a gold medal from a short, mammal like creature.

“Mmmmm, wonder how the other years are doing,” The man mutters, his good cheer souring slightly as his ever-present frown darkens, “Thinking about it, didn’t **he** mention he had managed to find a successor already? I wonder how they are doing…”

He swiftly switches sites, moving to the apparently still ongoing first years’ sports festival live stream, his frown deepening as he catches the very beginning of the last match of the semi-finals.

“Are they still going? Usually they’re already done by-” The man’s words die in his mouth as his eyes widen, ever so slightly, as a very familiar burst of blue flames erupts inside the screen right in front of him.

“That’s who you chose?” he asks in utter disbelief, talking to himself in the empty room. “An incognita in your own class, after barely knowing her for a month? That’s who you gave the strongest power in the world? Some random girl you barely know, over the perfect choice I’ve been training for years just for this?”

Her form is lacking, even as she quickly dispatches her far larger and stronger opponent with the help of her Persona, the man already noticing countless way she could have easily been brought down.

The man’s eyes sharpen, looking past her winning smile as she’s cheered by the crowd, noticing all the small, telling signs beneath.

“Giving her all no matter how much that takes from her, even if it kills her, throwing her to the sharks without even a hint of what she’s doing wrong, just because you like her spirit or something.” He mutters with a frown, “I guess that makes sense knowing you…”

He pushes a button on a nearby intercom, the buzzing sound swiftly followed by the questioning tone of one of his sidekicks.

“Centipeder? Get me all you can on a certain… Uraraka Ochako.” The man orders, his eyes only narrowing at the name appearing on screen as it showed the picture of the young woman in question, alongside the picture of who was probably going to be her opponent, “And get me one of those… First Years Internship forms? Are those still a thing? Anyway, get me one of those too while you’re at it.”

“There’s some mistakes we need to fix.”

* * *

“Ladies and Gentlefolk, after many tears, losses, victories, a foiled villain attack, cheerleaders and angst, we’ve finally arrived at the final match to this high-octane, no holds barred tournament!”

The crowd cheers wildly at Present Mic’s words, Uraraka and Yaoyorozu entering from each side of the large arena.

“It’s a battle between the finest among UA’s first years, the Amazon Princess of Creation vs the Mistress of Gravity and her Knight in Shining Armour, it’s a battle for the history books ladies and gentlefolk, it’s- it’s- it’s-”

“URARAKA VS YAOYOROZU!”

“It’s the final match, Yaoyorozu!” Uraraka calls from her own side of the ring, a confident smile on her face. “I’ve worked so hard, and come this far already, I’m not going to go down easily as if none of that had ever mattered.”

“I admire your spirit Uraraka, but I’m afraid your rise to the top shall end here.” Momo comments with her own, determined glare, “I’ve also a lot to prove to the world today, both as a UA student, as a future heroine and as a Yaoyorozu.”

“Let’s see whose determination is stronger between the two of us then!” Uraraka shoots back with a strained grin. “And may the best heroine win!”

“AND BEGIN!”

“PERSONA!” Uraraka shouts out, Bradamante swiftly appearing to her side as she rushes toward Yaoyorozu, the young woman already producing something out of her open gym suit.

“ _I need to finish this quickly!_ ” Uraraka thinks as she gets in range of Yaoyorozu, making a feint to the side as her Persona surges forward, “ _Twin Shot_!”

Bradamante’s rapier lunges for Yaoyorozu’s torso, the younger woman hastily finishing to produce a western-style sword to parry the attack while attempting to lunge herself toward the armoured enemy, only for Bradamante’s rapier to parry her own strike in turn.

Yaoyorozu takes a hasty step to the side, one foot forward, another back as she lunges forward once more, her sword clashing against Bradamante’s as sparks fly in between each blade, the two swordswomen clashing in the middle of the ring.

“She knows how to sword fight.” Uraraka drawls in a dejected tone, hanging to the side-lines as he tries to find an opening in the two swordswomen’s sword fight. “Of course she knows how to sword fight, she was probably got taught how to do it in between a fancy piano lesson with some world-renowned musician and a visit to her family’s personas stables-”

“Actually, I was taught the violin.” Yaoyorozu chirps back, sidestepping Bradamante’s lunge as she switches targets toward Uraraka. “And I’ve never really been that comfortable around horses since that one time my parents roped me in a fox hunt in England with the Queen.”

“Darned rich people!” Uraraka bites back in frustration, narrowly dodging Yaoyorozu’s lunge as hastily retreats backward. “Darner rich fat cats who only know how to get richer and fatter on the backs of some honest people’s labour, I bet you’ve never had to scrounge up the money for the one meal you could allow yourself for the day!”

“I- I’m not fat!” Yaoyorozu yells back, a red blush tinging her cheeks as she hastily produces a round shield to her left arm as she faces back Bradamante, quickly deflecting another of her Twin Shot with her newly created shield.

“That’s what you got from all of that?!” Uraraka screams in frustration, her temper rising as she lunges forward. Yaoyorozu hastily twists her upper body, slamming away Uraraka’s open palms with her shield as the chunk of metal loses all its previous weight.

Uraraka’s frustration grows as she grabs the blade of Yaoyorozu’s sword with an open palm, the other woman’s breath catching in her throat as Uraraka squeezes it.

Blood starts trickling down Uraraka’s hand, even as Yaoyorozu’s blade is yanked away from her grip, thrown behind her as she raises a bloodied fist toward her, slamming against her now raised shield.

Yaoyorozu kicks her straight in the stomach, attempting to distance herself from her only for Bradamante to sweep back in, a gust of wind erupting from her wings and making Yaoyorozu stumble in place.

Uraraka’s migraine is getting worse, not helped by her mounting anger and frustration. Her stamina is getting more and more depleted as Bradamante attempts once again to Twin Shot Yaoyorozu, her shield cracking under the blade’s power.

She curses under her breath, her window for a victory closing faster and faster the more Yaoyorozu keeps tiring her and her persona out as the young woman already produces a large mallet out of her cleavage, the heavy weapon striking against Bradamante’s side with a loud clang.

Uraraka flinches in pain, the light of Media washing over herself and her Persona as the headache worsens, the head-splitting pain getting more and more evident by the second.

“ _I need to finish this quickly_!” She thinks with a worried frown, one of her eyes closing slightly as she endures the dull pain beneath her temples, “Bradamante, get back!”

Bradamante disengages, gliding backwards as Yaoyorozu lunges forward with her mallet, the heavy weapon smashing against the concrete ring and unbalancing her slightly.

Uraraka quickly steps forward, hand outstretched and grabbing at Yaoyorozu’s shoulder, fast enough for her opponent not to dodge in time, her stomach churning in pain as she feels her Quirk activating, Yaoyorozu’s weight disappearing in an instant.

“It’s now or never!” Uraraka shouts, one leg sweeping low against Yaoyorozu’s, the young woman getting tripped off the ground with a startled scream as Uraraka manages to push her forward into the air with the last of her strength, “ _Garu_!”

Wind erupts from her Persona’s wings, Yaoyorozu getting carried over into the air with weightless abandon, only for another chain with a hook to erupt off her arm, aimed at Uraraka’s left leg.

The hook gets tangled with it before Uraraka can even react as Yaoyorozu pulls with all her strength. She manages to stop her forward momentum mid-air, anchoring herself to her opponent like a balloon set at the cruel mercy of the winds.

“N- no!” Uraraka yells, her vision clouding as the winds subside, her Persona disappearing into a burst of blue flame behind her as she finally reaches her limits. She attempts to make a step forward, to pull at the chain at her leg, but her strength finally fails her, the young woman collapsing to the ground in an exhausted heap, “Not like t- this…”

Weight returns to Yaoyorozu, the young woman falling on her ass to the ground, leaving a sizable crater around her. She looks dazed at her collapsed opponent, still conscient even as she motionlessly lies down on the ground, looking up from her heap onto the ground with an almost feral look in her eyes.

“I c- can- still f- fight!” She grits out, fists tightening as she attempts to crawl toward her opponent. “I’m n- not giving u- up so easily-!”

“I can s- still- I can still win… t- this…” Uraraka grits out in frustration as pinpricks of tears appear to the side of her eyes as she finally succumbs to exhaustion and mental fatigue, passing out with barely a whimper on her spot to the ground.

“It seems Uraraka is unable to continue,” Midnight comments as she reaches Yaoyorozu on the ring, the younger woman now back up on her feet, “The Winner is Yaoyorozu Momo!”

The crowd explodes into cheers, pro hero and civilian alike commenting on the match that had just transpired as they did so.

Abd then, finally, Midnight takes hold of Yaoyorozu’s right hand, raising it into the air under the adoration of the audience, a still dazed Yaoyorozu simply going with it.

“I- I won.” Yaoyorozu comments with a startled tone, almost not believing it herself as a faint, giddy smile appears on her face, “I won!”

Yaoyorozu Momo manages to get the first place of the UA First Years’ Sports Festival.

* * *

“Would you look at that, you’re the people who attacked the USJ, the ones who managed to get away at least.”

A tense silence fills the dingy bar hidden away from everyone and everything, the Hero Killer: Stain staring around the unfamiliar place as his large, wide eyes take in everything around it, including the man-made out of dark mist standing behind the bar’s counter, and the white-haired young man, sitting on a barstool right in front of him, severed hands covering his entire body.

“I used to execute scum like you for far less back in my days,” The Hero Killer comments, long tongue sneaking out of his mouth as he licks his lips. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Oh, this is nothing but a recruitment pinch for our merry party of villains.” The other man, Shigaraki, simply says, a grin appearing beneath the severed hand covering his face. “We’ve been hearing about your exploits into the hero world, and we’ve all decided such a high-stats rogue such as you would be an invaluable member for our league to have.”

A tense silence fills the room, the Hero Killer’s red eyes staring intently at the young man in front of him, focusing on his glimmering yellow eyes beneath the severed hand on his face.

“Honesty, such a difficult thing to find among your- kind.” The hero killer spits out, a scowl setting onto his face as he stares down the man in front of him. “Still, honesty can only award you so much. My crusade is eternal and everlasting, I do not have the time to waste on this- inane squabbles, not when there’s work is still to be done out there, so I’ll have to decline.”

“Just like that? Without even listening to what we have to say?” Shigaraki says with a frown, standing back up from his stool as he takes one cautious step toward the Hero Killer. “After all, our goals seem to align. You want to destroy this wretched hero society we live in, don’t you? And what better way to do so than to murder the Number One Hero, All Might?”

“And what about then?” The Hero Killer bites back with a frown, “That’s all you’re after? Murdering All Might? The true extent of this league? Do you truly believe that’s all it will take for this world to crumble under its own weight?”

“Of course not, then we’ll just have to speed up its destruction along as we usher in a new age for this country, a new Age of unprecedented Villainy!” Shigaraki says with a shrug, “We’ll just need to destroy everything we don’t like, descend this country into the complete, utter anarchy it deserves, everything up for grabs for the strongest to rise to the top, as the weak perish under our heel, just like it will happen to that green haired brat and his stupid little friends for daring to destroy my Nomu-!”

“A world where only the strongest survive huh?” the Hero Killer repeats with a frown, “I can’t believe I wasted some of my precious time on you, but there is no one here to blame but myself. After all, it seems a Shadow will always be nothing more than a Shadow, be it fake hero or cruel villain alike.”

“Wha-?”

Stain lunges, swords at the ready as she darts forward. A throwing knife is already launched at the barkeep standing behind the counter from somewhere within his boot, one sword stabbing into Shigaraki’s shoulder before he could even react, slamming him into the ground below.

“Your conviction, your will- They are lacking.” The hero killer says in a measured tone, as if he was lecturing him rather than smashing his sword right into his shoulder as his long tongue already outstretches and feasts onto Shigaraki and Kurogiri’s spilled blood, “You talk about anarchy, about a world where the strong will prosper, but you are nothing but unrestrained id, a slave to your own, selfish desires, trying to create an Utopia without really understanding you’d do nothing but mirror this wretched society we live in today.”

“Kurogiri, the recruitment was a bust send this psycho away!” Shigaraki yells out, eyes widening as he feels his body freezing up, the sword’s blade almost severing his arm off his shoulder as the hero killer stabs deeper. “Any time now Kurogiri, I’m getting kind of torn apart over here!”

“I’m- I’m frozen in place.” Kurogiri announces in a surprised tone, the mist villain standing frozen on his spot behind the bar counter as blood trickles down his arm, “This must be the Hero Killer’s Quirk’s work.”

“Hero Killer, as if that’s what I truly am.” The Hero Killer grits out, one foot slamming against Shigaraki’s other arm, “I am but a simple seeker of the truth, one who has truly understood the reality of the world we live in, and is only here to silence those who desire on its continuation, to preserve this cycle of posers, wretched bastards who blind themselves to the truth via fame and money, via their selfish dreams, people who lose sight of what is truly important-”

“Fake heroes, criminals who desire only to perpetuate the cycle for their own means, who wish harm upon the only, shining saviour trying to save this world from itself…” The hero killer’s voice takes an almost fanatical tone. “You are all but vermin taking human form, unworthy of the lives you’ve stolen, and if no one else cares about this, if no one else has decided to put an end to your rot, poisoning the world, then I shall be the one to do it!”

“After all, the only way for evil to triumph is for a good man to do nothing.” Stain concludes with a smirk, “And I’m that good man, and this is me doing something, something to stop you all before it’s too late!”

“Did no one ever tell you talk too much,” Shigaraki spits out, yellow eyes widening as he grits his teeth as his right hand twitches slightly, the villain attempting to move any part of his body, “Convictions, fake heroes, and now this fanatical crusade of yours, you’re not a Rogue, you’re just some messed up Paladin!”

“Oh, are those really going to be your final words, you scum?” The Hero Killer grits out, a wide smirk appearing on his face, “Come on, this is your darkest hour, this is the closest to your death you’ll ever be, show me your true form, let’s see how powerful your selfish desires really are compared to my holy crusade!”

Dark mist erupts around Stain, the Hero Killer startling slightly as he turns back toward Kurogiri, the barkeeper’s hand pointed toward him as a portal erupts. He hastily extracts his sword from Shigaraki’s shoulder, attempting to dash away from the black mist, only for it to fully envelop it, clouding all vision around him.

In an instant, Stain is back onto the rooftop he had been found in, blood-drenched sword still in hand, as he looks wildly around, no trace of the bar, nor of the warp gate user or the other villain.

And in a bar hidden away from prying eyes, a wounded villain can’t do anything but let out a frustrated cry of anger at his attacker’s disappearance, his body finally beginning to unfreeze itself just in time for yet another stool to be turned into dust.

* * *

“And now, finally, here comes the awards ceremony Ladies and Gentlefolk!”

The crowd cheers as the sports festival come to an end, a large podium standing in the middle of the arena, three people standing on it.

“Unfortunately, Uraraka couldn’t remain with us to receive her Silver Medal today.” Midnight explains as she gestures toward the empty second place podium with a swirl of her hand, “She’s currently getting treated by Recovery Girl into a speedy recovery, so that she’ll be able to tackle more challenges in the years to come!”

“And now, it’s time for the medals, and who better to hand them out to our students than the number one hero-”

“I AM HERE!” All Might yells as he leaps into the large stage, cutting Midnight off as he drops on the ground, four medals held tightly into his fist, “WITH THE MEDALS!”

The crowd cheers harder at his arrival, a deafening wall of noise that almost drowns out Midnight complains about the hero suddenly cutting her presentation off, a now sheepish All Might reaching the third-place spot on the podium with twin bronze medals in his hands.

“YOUNG SHOJI, YOUNG KAIBARA, YOUR HARD WORK HAS BEEN ADMIRABLE,” All Might says as he places each bronze medal on the two students’ necks, Shoji having to crouch down so to allow him to reach his neck at all, “HOWEVER, YOU’VE BOTH TAKEN ON THE ROLE OF A FOLLOWER, RATHER THAN A LEADER DURING THIS COMPETITION, AND IT HAS SHOWN IN YOUR INABILITY TO REACH FIRST PLACE. FOR ONE TO BECOME THE NUMBER ONE HERO, THEY NEED TO BE MORE ASSERTIVE WITH THEIR COLLEAGUES, AND NEVER HOLD BACK OR SETTLE DOWN FOR WHAT THEY MIGHT HAVE AT THE TIME. HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT.”

“Yes, All Might,” Kaibara says with a pensive frown, one mirrored by Shoji at his side on the podium as All Might heads off toward the second-place spot on the podium.

“IT’S A SHAME I COULDN’T GIVE THIS MEDAL TO YOUNG URARAKA HERE!” All Might comments with a frown, “STILL, SHE HAS TRULY DONE HER BEST TODAY, AND I’M SURE SHE HAS MANAGED TO MOVE MANY A HEART OUR THERE WITH HER DETERMINATION AND STRONG WILL!”

All Might moves to the first-place spot on the podium now, a wide smile still present on his lips as he places Yaoyorozu’s gold medal on her neck.

“BUT DETERMINATION ISN’T EVERYTHING, AREN’T I RIGHT, YOUNG YAOYOROZU?” All Might says in a conciliatory tone, “FOR IT IS THANKS TO YOUR HARD WORK AND TRAINING, SO, CONGRATULATIONS!”

“N- now, I didn’t do anything special, really…” Yaoyorozu comments, a faint blush on her cheeks, “All my classmates- No, all the other students in all of our courses did just as well as me if not better, I just managed to exploit what I had against my opponent at the best I could.”

“SUCH MODESTY, TRULY, A SHINING EXAMPLE FOR OUR NEW GENERATION OF HEROES!” All Might comments with an uproarious laugh, “STILL, DO NOT THINK OF THIS VICTORY AS AN INVITATION TO REST ON TODAY’S LAURELS!”

“AS THE WINNER OF THE SPORTS FESTIVAL TODAY, YOU’LL BE PUT UNDER MUCH MORE SCRUTINY THAN YOUR OTHER PEERS IN THE EXAMS AND EVENTS TO COME, SO YOU BETTER NOT SLACK OFF ON YOUR TRAINING YOUNG LADY!”

“I- I will not, All Might,” Yaoyorozu says, a determined smile on her lips, “I promise this is but my starting line for my future as a top heroine!”

“INDEED!” All Might yells out as he turns back toward the crowd of students below, as well as the paying audience all around them, “THOSE ARE THE WINNERS OF TODAY’S SPORTS FESTIVAL, BUT WHO KNOWS WHAT OTHER VICTORIES AND DEFEATS SHALL OUR FUTURE BRINGS! EVERY STUDENT HERE TODAY IS BUT AT THE INFANCIES OF THEIR CAREERS AS A HERO, AND THEY SHALL ONLY GROW MORE AND MORE POWERFUL UNDER OUR TUTELAGE, AND ALL THANKS TO THEIR OWN HARD WORK!”

The crowd cheers, a screamed “plus ultra” erupting from student and pro hero alike as Yaoyorozu basks in the adoration of the crowd around her as all tension finally leaves her body as she finally lets out one, long sigh of relief.

Her smile falters slightly, turning melancholic even as she starts descending her spot on the podium.

She and Shoji join back with their class below, the two receiving heartfelt congratulation after heartfelt congratulation for her victory and his third place as the weight of the gold medal around Yaoyorozu’s neck starts growing heavier and heavier by the second as her smile strains, if only for a second.

“ _Are you seeing me now, Mother?”_ She thinks as she attempts to fake a convincing smile for her classmates, one hand going to her medal and rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger.

_“Did I- Did I finally make you proud this time?”_

* * *

“It seems Mistress Momo has managed to exceed our expectations at the sports festival, Ma’am.”

In a large room somewhere in a massive villa, hidden away in the Japanese Countryside, stands a large, private office. A tall, slender woman, dark hair cascading onto her back, is sitting behind a large glass desk, an equally slender maid standing dutifully at her side, a now turned off tabled clutched in her hands.

“Oh, has she?” The woman says with an almost bored tone, yellow eyes scanning over a thick binder in front of her, filled to the brim with documents, one pen in hand as she keeps scratching and writing something on them, “I was almost expecting her to mess everything up again. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

The maid’s expression is stoic, never changing in the slightest as she keeps looking straight ahead, red eyes focused intently on something placed on the wall right beyond the older woman’s head.

“She has managed to get into the first place Ma’am,” She continues in a strained tone, the older woman’s pen stopping for just a second against the paper, only to quickly resume in its working. “I think it would be appreciated for her emotional wellbeing as well as to ensure a continued good performance on her part if you were to send her a message to congratulate her for-”

“Can’t do that, too much work to do, so little time to do it,” The older woman cuts in with almost a shrug. “I’m sure Momo will understand, she’s, what, twenty right now? She’s grown up enough to not need someone coddling her all the time.”

“She’s eighteen, ma’am.” The maid comments with barely a whisper, her mouth setting into one, firm line as her long, blue-grey hair bob as she shakes her head slightly, tied into a large ponytail flowing right into her back. The small sparkle of rebellion is gone as fast as it has come, her face instantly returning into a well-crafted mask of neutrality, as she keeps standing right at the older woman’s side, almost as if she was waiting for something.

“Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?” The older woman says with a sigh, finally taking her eyes off her documents to look up at her maid, “Something important possibly, and not this- Inane affairs? I’m a busy woman and I don’t have all day you know?”

“No, Ma’am,” The maid says as she stands straighter under the older woman’s gaze, red eyes never meeting yellow, “I’m sorry if I’ve disturbed you Ma’am, I’ll be on my way to my other tasks.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever you say,” The woman mutters under her breath, getting back to her documents as the maid begins stepping back toward the end of the large private study.

“Oh, and Labrys?” The older woman calls back, almost as if she had finally remembered something. “Be a dear and have the good doctor be sent here. I have a couple things I need to discuss with him over last month’s factory quota and there seem to be some numbers missing.”

“It will be done, Ma’am,” The maid says with a monotone, stopping mid-step and not even turning back toward the other woman.

“Good, good,” The older woman mutters under her breath, betting back to her documentations without another word, the maid sighing softly to herself as she finally exits the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

 _“You did really well today Mistress Momo, and you should be proud of your accomplishments today,”_ The maid thinks to herself as she heads toward the in-mansion lab, the other maids giving her a wide berth as she passed on the long, cold hallways of the large mansion.

“ _No matter what your mother’s Shadow might think or say to you about it.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just something to wrap up the arc and end it.
> 
> Next up: Golden Week.
> 
> (As a side note, I don't always answer to all the comments on this fic or say it but every time I find someone has commented on this fic (even just to say "oh wow cool chapter" or something) I feel a rush of serotonin shooting straight to my brain. So, I appreciate every one of you "in these uncertain times," and stay safe out there).
> 
> My beta reader, SmashingSkunk53, warned me he'll be unavailable from November 14 to 25, so you might expect a hiatus from this/have next chapter not beta read, depends on things.


	20. Jester Arcana: Rank III; Chariot Arcana: Rank II; Cornucopia Arcana: Rank II

“Well class, we did it.” Mr. Aizawa drawls out in the most drool tone possible, earning some cheers from the students around him.

The beat and exhausted members of class 1-A are all gathered around him in their dorms’ large public lounge, the evening right after the exhausting day of the first years Sports Festival and each in various states of giddy celebration or absolute exhaustion

“We’ve all managed to survive your first months of university without a single causality, neither in the literal, nor the figurative sense.” Aizawa continues, the bandaged mummy as he is staring down each one of his students, “No one has died, been expelled, quitted nor got too irreparably damaged… yet.”

A couple of awkward cheers come from some members of class 1-A, only prompting a weary sigh to escape their still heavily bandaged teacher.

“Unfortunately, I can’t say this has been achieved due to any sort of lack of trying on your parts.” He continues with another, weary sigh, “Especially given the tendency of some problem students among you all to- overexert themselves just to make my life more difficult with even more needles paperwork.”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly as he sits on his impromptu wheelchair courtesy of one Yaoyorozu Momo, his quirk starting to take its grim toll on him.

“Still, I feel some congratulations are in order.” Aizawa pauses, eyeing each of his students with- less contempt than usual, “As a reward, we’ll be giving you the next week off to recuperate after the previous ordeals, which incidentally happens to coincide with the days of Golden Week.”

“Once returned, we should have finally finished to process your internship proposals.” Aizawa finally concludes, some excited murmurs spreading like wildfire among the students. “I urge you all to take this time to seriously consider taking some rest, especially given the future trials that lay ahead of you, and to prepare yourselves for the ordeals you’ll have to face during your Internships.”

“Before any of you asks, no, this will NOT, under any circumstances, lead to actual hero work during the Internship week.” Aizawa hastily continues before anyone can even open their mouth. “And you will not be compensated for any work you’ll take part of in any of those heroes’ agency, not in the actual, tax abiding sense. Exposure shall be the currency you will receive in those internships, exposure and experience.”

A brief pause, Aizawa glare scanning around the room for his students’ reactions.

“Which means, as you all should be made well aware, that you better not waste this opportunity by choosing someone purely on their ranks on the hero rankings.” Aizawa concludes with the finality of a sealed coffin. “You will have a couple days after receiving the internship proposals proper, so you’ll all need to take your times least you got stuck on some of the most… unsavoury members of the Hero community.”

Izuku’s brows furrows, brain already envisioning every possible worst-case scenario for his eventual future internship. Aizawa then finally gives one last withering glare to his class before stomping out the dorms with a swirl of his scarf, the impromptu class meeting breaking up as he does so.

“Good lord, that has probably been the most exhausting day of my life.” Yaoyorozu managed to say with a chuckle, dropping down a nearby couch as everyone in the dorm’s lounge finally relaxed. “Speaking of, how are you holding there Midori? Is the wheelchair comfortable enough for you?”

“Y- yes, don’t worry Yaoyorozu, this is totally fine.” Izuku startles as he’s snapped out of his musings over his future internships, wheeling his way toward Yaoyorozu’s sofa. “See, perfectly functional, and it’s not like I’m going to need this more than today…” Izuku hesitates for just a second, an attempt at a smile faltering slightly as a shadow comes over his face, “At least I hope so.”

“Oh, don’t worry Midoriya, I’m sure you’ll be up and about in no time!” Uraraka joins in with a wide grin, dropping on the spot near Yaoyorozu with a relieved huff. “Just look at me, I’ve been abusing my quirk way more than you today, and aside from some muscle pain and a headache I’m totally fine.

“Eh, I don’t think your version of my Quirk tires you as much as it does to me, but I appreciate your optimism.” Izuku tiredly chuckles out, “Still Uraraka, you’re taking this… better than I expected. You were so pumped to win this tournament-”

“Eh, I still gotten the second place, that’s way more than I was realistically expecting to get during my match against Bakugou,” Uraraka says with a giggle. “Speaking of, I didn’t have the opportunity to tell you earlier Yaoyorozu, but congratulation for reaching first place. Just know it won’t be so easy next year.”

“Thank you Uraraka, but you shouldn’t sell yourself so short,” Yaoyorozu gracefully says with a small smile. “And congratulations to you too for getting to the second place. Had you not collapsed there and then for Quirk exhaustion I’m not so sure our positions wouldn’t be reversed right now.”

“Speaking of Quirk Exhaustion, how are you doing Yaoyorozu?” Izuku butts in with a concerned frown on his brow, his green orbs focusing on the young woman sitting in front of him. “You’ve been producing stuff all day with your Quirk, you must be starving by how many lipids you used today.”

“Ah, don’t worry Midoriya, I’m fine, I’m not that hungry.” Yaoyorozu says with a nervous smile, only for a loud, rumbling thunder to erupt from her stomach, startling Izuku and the other students still lounging in the dorm’s lounge.

“Ok, maybe I am a little bit hungry.” Yaoyorozu admits with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, I’ll just grab something from the fridge or something before going to bed, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yeah, no, it is a big deal,” Jiro buts in from behind the sofa, seemingly having eavesdropped the entire conversation alongside Aoyama and Hagakure. “You’re our star student today, you should be treated with some fancy meal for how good you’ve been today, not just grab some trash food from our fridge.”

“W- well, I could prepare s- something for the class if someone is willing to help me with-” Izuku offers without hesitation, a chorus of voices raising from the group of students all around him at his proposal.

“Deku, you know weren’t allowed to make any unneeded effort till you were completely recuperated.” Uraraka is the first to shout, “So don’t you even think of taking up a spork today unless you want me to snitch on you on Recovery Girl!”

“Woah,” Shinso Whistles from somewhere behind Izuku. “And I that wouldn’t wish that little old lady’s anger on my worst enemy.”

Izuku turns right as Shinso, Tsuyu and Todoroki join in on the group, an embarrassed smile on his lips even as Shinso gives him a sardonic grin.

“Still, Uraraka is right Midoriya, you really shouldn’t worry yourself over this, I think we’ll manage even without your cooking tonight.”

“Man, does that mean I have to cook for myself today?” Ashido butts in the group with a whine, Tokoyami and Shoji close by. “That sucks, I’m far too mentally and emotionally exhausted to even think of cooking something, but I’m also far too hungry to go to sleep without even eating something-”

“Well, I doubt any one of us would offer himself up to prepare everyone else’s meals kero, and I don’t think UA is going to allow in any delivery service on campus tonight after that villain attack, kero.” Tsuyu butts in with a pensive ribbit, “Anyone has any other proposals for the night, Kero?”

A pensive silence fills the room, the sun having set by now as the night sky sets in, everyone’s stomach grumbling like a single being as they weight in their choices for the evening, no one really willing to cook themselves anything after such a stressful day.

“A- actually…” Izuku is the first to talk, everyone’s eyes shifting back to him as he raises his right hand, a faint blush spreading on his cheeks.

“I think I k- know a place that s- should still deliver here…”

* * *

“Aiya delivery service, we deliver everything to everyone everywhere.” A droning monotone begins, only to pause in surprise at the sight of Uraraka in front of her. “Oh, wait, you’re one of Midoriya’s friends, right? I guess he’s the one I should bring the order to then."

The small road outside the Class 1-A dorms is brightly lit by artificial light now, Uraraka the first to come out of the dorm’s doors to accept their class’ order.

“Hi N- Nakamura, I hope we didn’t trouble you or anything with this.” Izuku manages to say as he wheels his way toward the dorm’s main doors and exit, Yaoyorozu in tow. “We just finished the sports festival and didn’t really want to cook anything for ourselves-”

“Understandable.” Nakamura simply says as she turns toward her scooter, dislodging one of the large containers haphazardly strapped onto its back and wheeling it toward them, “Nice shirt by the way.

Izuku blushes slightly at her words, fists balling the hems of his plain white shirt. The word “Shorts” are written on it, because of course they are, and Izuku is too busy with his embarrassment to even notice the small frown appearing on Uraraka’s brow at his side.

“Two vegetarian bowls, five meat specials, three spicy meat bowls, five plain meat bowls and three seafood bowls.” Nakamura simply lists off as the large container seemingly opens by itself to reveal what’s within it to the salivating teens gathering around it, “I hope we didn’t forget anything with the order since I always assumed Hero Classes here were usually composed by twenty students…”

“Ah, no, Ka- B- Bakugou just went off to bed before dinner, so we didn’t really count him into this…” Izuku begins with an awkward chuckle, “As for Iida-”

Words die in Izuku’s mouth, a grim silence filling the room as the ghost of their classmate absence once again makes itself known to the members of class 1-A.

“He had to get back home one day earlier, so he’s not here at the moment.” Yaoyorozu concludes with a small sigh as she approaches the delivery girl. “Thank you, I think this should be all. Given my status as class president and winner of the Sports Festival, I propose I offer you all this meal as celebration for my victory today, how about that?”

“Ho- Hold on Yaoyorozu, you don’t need to go that far-” Izuku stammers out as his classmate already produces a wallet. “I m- mean, I’m sure we can all pay for our part and-”

“Oh come on Deku, if our Class President wants to offer us our meal who are we to complain?” Uraraka instantly interjects, almost knocking Izuku off his wheelchair as she elbows him to the side, “Worst case scenario our class will just have to give her back the money when we’re back inside, no need to get everyone out just for a couple yen…”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary don’t worry, I said I wanted to offer everyone this victory dinner and I intend to go through with it.” Yaoyorozu says with a confident smile, turning back toward Nakamura with her wallet now open, “So, it’s eighteen bowls of food, right? How much would they cost, ten thousand yen each?”

An awkward silence fills the room, even as Yaoyorozu seems to produce off her wallet a large spread of green bills, offering them to the suddenly wide-eyed delivery girl with a polite smile.

“Yaoyorozu…” Uraraka begins a strained tone, an awkward chuckle escaping her mouth. “Did you ever- pay for delivery food before today? Or gone grocery shopping at all?”

“Uh, n- not really…” Yaoyorozu says, her tone suddenly turning self-conscious as a faint blush tints her cheeks. “My Maid usually does all the grocery shopping for the house really-”

“Of course she does, why did I expect anything else.” Uraraka repeats, a vein popping on her forehead, “Clueless rich people...”

“Wait, is this not enough? I can add a couple more thousands if this is not enough…” Yaoyorozu says in alarm, her blush getting redder as she produces more and more money from her seemingly bottomless wallet. “Here, is thirty hundred thousand enough or-”

“No matter how much I’d like to say yes, I am unfortunately legally required to tell you it’s actually just eight hundred yen for the standard bowls and three thousand for the special meat bowls.” Nakamura drawls in an almost bored monotone. “If you want to leave the excess money as a tip however I will be more than happy to accept it.”

“Oh- oh of course.” Yaoyorozu hastily says, “Tipping, that’s a thing normal people do- Ok, thirteen bowls to the power of eight hundred plus three meat specials to the power of three thousand, I guess it should be-”

“Two hundred fifty-four thousand yen.” Izuku mechanically says, almost startling everyone in the room, “Which means if we go by standard tipping policies that’d also mean twenty-five four hundred more yen of tipping, for a total of two hundred seventy-nine thousand four hundred yen.”

“Ah, yes, thank you Midoriya,” Yaoyorozu says with a small smile, “Here, and sorry for the- momentary mix up, keep the change.”

“No problem.” Nakamura simply says in her dry monotone as she accepts the wad of bills in Yaoyorozu’s hands, “Oh, and Midoriya, congratulation on your ending among the top eight at the festival, you got farther than I expected so good job.”

“Oh, t- thank you I guess?” Izuku stammers out with an awkward chuckle, a faint blush colouring his cheeks. “I’m sure- I’m sure some of my other classmates deserve more praise really, I mean, after all Yaoyorozu and Uraraka here did end up getting the first and second place- And Shoji too, he got to the third place, that’s more than I can say for myself-”

“Don’t say that Deku, you did plenty of good in the tournament,” Uraraka hastily interjects, her eyes narrowing slightly at Izuku’s words, “And even then the only reason why I managed to get my silver medal in the first place was thanks to your Quirk, so this is also a victory for you.”

“What Uraraka said.” Nakamura interjects in a monotone, “About you doing plenty good in the tournament that is, not sure what she’s talking about when it comes to your Quirks. You represented the UA cafeteria staff spectacularly today, and you should be proud of this both as an essential worker and as an above average chef working under me and Uncle Lunch Rush.”

“S- sure-” Izuku replies with an awkward chuckle, “T- thank you for the… p- pep talk Nakamura…”

“No problem, as your direct superior it’s my job to uplift my underlings’ spirits in their time of need least they underperformed when they return back to work next week.” Nakamura simply states in her usual droning tone, the young woman raising one eyebrow at Izuku’s current state, “I hope you’ll be back in tip top shape then, wouldn’t want you to miss workdays due to this.”

A hint of worry seeps into Nakamura’s usually dry monotone, spearing Izuku right in the chest as he feels his and Nakamura’s bond strengthen.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou.”**

Time slows to a crawl, Nakamura’s card erupting from Izuku’s chest and rotating, spinning in blinding light in front of the startled young man’s eyes.

**“Thy bond has grown and prospered. This shall bring you closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Cornucopia Arcana.”**

The card stops, signalling its passage from the previous Rank of I to its new Rank of II, before slowly starting to sink back within Izuku’s chest.

**“Thy affinity to the Cornucopia Arcana has strengthened. Thou and Thy allies have now gained the ability to enter-”**

The voice cuts of, its next words turning into senseless static as time slingshots back to its proper pace, startling Izuku more than it usually did by how abrupt it was.

“Well, I have a lot of more deliveries to make for the night,” Nakamura says in a dry tone, “And I don’t want to impose on your victory party Midoriya, so I better get going. Remember to leave the bowls outside the dorm rooms when you’ve finished.”

And with that she’s off, without even waiting for Izuku’s response, her scooter revving up and departing from the outside of class 1-A’s dorms.

“It’s always nice to meet someone with such a dedication to her work.” Yaoyorozu says with a small smile, “Wonder where she’s going…”

“Class 1-B’s dorms from what I’m seeing…” Izuku replies with a hum, his eyes still trained on Nakamura’s retreating form as her scooter seemingly stops in front of their neighbouring dorms, another large container at the ready.

Uraraka hums in a non-comital way, eyes narrowed slightly as she too keeps staring at the departed delivery girl.

“Everything alright, Uraraka?” Izuku asks in a perplexed tone, his eyes turning toward his fellow Persona user and noticing just now her slightly grim expression, “You’re not still suffering from those magical exhaustion headaches I hope.”

“Uh? Ah, no, yes, I’m still feeling them but it’s- it’s not as bad as during the Sports Festival don’t worry.” Uraraka startles under his friend’s scrutiny, chuckling awkwardly as Yaoyorozu’s and Izuku’s eyes switch back to her, “Don’t worry, it was- It was nothing, just a stray thought, let’s get back inside I’m sure our classmates must be starving and I can’t wait to try to meat bowl challenge you’ve been hyping all evening.”

Her face smooths back into an energetic smile, Izuku’s worries settling momentarily as Yaoyorozu takes hold of the wheeled container Nakamura left them and started dragging it inside the class 1-A dorms, Izuku in tow.

Uraraka hesitates, her smile slowly turning into a frown as she looks back toward the direction Nakamura disappeared to, a strange weight settling within her stomach.

“I- I don’t think I ever even told my name to that girl,” Uraraka mutters under her breath, gears turning in her aching head as her frown deepens.

“At least not that I remember...”

* * *

Uraraka and Yaoyorozu having finally Delivered the bowls to each member of class 1-A currently in their dorms’ main lounge, Izuku can finally relax, a steaming bowl of spicy meat resting on one of the many study tables in the room.

On a distant table, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu and Sato are currently eating their respective humongous bowls filled with meat, some of their classmates egging them on to see which of the two would manage to finish the gargantuan portion first.

Izuku is pretty sure he can see Uraraka starting a betting ring on the side-lines of the contest, taking advantage of Iida’s momentary absence from the dorms so not to be stopped.

“Man, I still can’t believe you’re eating that thing.” Shinso comments with a small chuckle as he plops to the seat near Izuku’s wheelchair, his own meat bowl now , “And I still can’t believe you’ve managed to convince Ashido AND Todoroki to try it either, or that they both decided to go along with it.”

“I quite like it, actually.” Todoroki’s neutral tone mumbles as he sits on the seat in front of Midoriya’s, absentmindedly inhaling his own bowl of spicy meat resting on his lap, “It’s spicy enough I can almost feel something when I eat it, so I’d say this is almost as good as soba really.”

“I agree on Todoroki on this one, this shit is delicious I don’t know what you’re talking about you philistine.” Ashido butts in as she plops on the seat in front of Shinso, a cheeky smile on her lips as she keeps on inhaling her bowl. “You have to give me this place number Midori they’ve just gotten themselves a new dedicated costumer!”

“S- sure thing Ashido…” Izuku replies with a nervous chuckle, continuing to eat his own, infernally spicy bowl of meat on his seat.

“I weep for your tastebuds.” Shinso drawls with a defeated sigh, completely ignored by the pink skinned young woman in front of him.

“But man, it really sucks you’re still like that after the tournament Midori,” Ashido continues, his mouth now more spicy meat bowl than actual mouth, “You sure Recovery Girl can’t do anything about it? You’re going to pass golden week stuck on that thing this way…”

“Ah, n- no, don’t worry, I d- don’t really m- mind, and it’s not l- like she can do anything a- about t- this…” Izuku stammers out, instantly becoming self-conscious. “Y- you know how my Q- quirk depletes my e- energies r- right? Recovery Girl can’t heal m- me unless I have some s- spare energies to use for it, otherwise I m- might end up… d- dying or s- something, and I- I don’t think anyone here would w- want that for me?”

“Is that a question or a sentence, Midori?” Ashido asks in a confused tone, completely missing Shinso and Todoroki stiffening at Izuku’s tone. “Of course no one here would want you to die, you’re our friend and our vice president and we all generally like you, you shouldn’t be so worried about that.”

“Oh.” Izuku murmurs, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks at yet another confirmation that, yes, he does have people other than his mother caring about him right now, and that maybe if they keep telling him this he might start believing it himself soon.

“Anyway, do any of you have any plans for Golden Week?” Ashido continues, seemingly missing Izuku’s sudden shift in mood, “This is our first year as a class we should do something together, we should do something cool during it, like have a fun trip with as many members of our class as possible or something!”

“And before you try to get yourself out of this by claiming you don’t want to be a bother to us Midori, I’m sure we can find something fun to accommodate your current condition too.” Ashido says before Izuku can even think of opening his mouth, “So, how about you guys? Hagakure and Aoyama already told me they’d be down for something-”

“Ah, I- I appreciate your o- offer Ashido but I really have to pass t- this one-” Izuku begins with a awkward chuckle, “I- I promised my mom I’d spend Golden Week with her, she must have been worried sick ever since the start of the Festival, which means I’ll probably spend this week b- back home with her, I’m sorry Ashido…”

“Spending time with your mom, huh?” Todoroki mumbles, a strange look appearing on his eyes as he seemingly descends into a Vietnam flashback, “That sounds nice.”

“Yeah, and also super lame.” Ashido whines in between bites of her spicy meat, “Come on Midori, we’re young university students, we have all our life in front of us, we should be living our lives to the fullest!”

“I’ll have to agree with Ashido on this one, Midoriya.” Shinso drawls out, “You told me you never had that many friends growing up right? This is the perfect occasion for you to spend some time with them, I’m sure your mother would prefer you didn’t waste it…”

“W- well, be that as it may-” Izuku begins, only to be immediately cut off by loud music erupting off his pants’ pockets, startling him and everyone else at the table.

“Baby Baby Baby?” Ashido murmurs in a confused tone, Shinso’s and Todoroki’s eyebrows raising to their hairlines as Izuku hastily getting his phone out of his pockets and into his hands.

“My crow changed all my ringtones.” Izuku says, as if that explains anything, before finally accepting the call, “Oh, hi mom, I was just about to call you-”

“Izuku, sweetie, I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay with you during Golden Week.” Midoriya Inko’s voice comes from the other side of the phone, a worried tone tinting her words, “I- I know I promised to stay with you especially after what happened today but I just remembered I promised an- an old high school friend, yeah, an High school friend I’d be one of her maid of honour at her wedding this week, I’m departing tomorrow evening and will probably be out for the whole week. I’m sorry I didn’t manage to tell you sooner it completely slipped my mind.”

“Oh.” Izuku simply says, a perplexed look appearing on his face, “Then do you want me to come with you? I’m not in the best condition for a wedding but I’m sure-”

“Oh, no, don’t worry sweetie, I’ve already gotten myself a plus one.” Izuku’s mother says, her tone easing slightly, “Do you remember that man that helped you in your training last summer? Mr. Toshinori?”

Izuku stiffens at his mother’s words, attracting the concerned look of his friends at the table.

“Yes mom, I do remember him, what about it?” Izuku says, his tone perfectly measured and controlled.

“Oh, he-” A pause, Izuku hearing his mother gulp from the other side of the phone, “He’s going to pretend to be my new husband Izuku. At the wedding. You s- see, t- truth be told, my high school friend… He- he’s-”

Izuku’s blood runs cold, but for entirely different reasons than the ones he was expecting to feel, as his mind instantly jumps to the worst.

“He’s him, isn’t he.” Izuku murmurs, Inko’s silence enough confirmation for him.

“You don’t need to go there if you don’t want to.” Izuku says, earning more weird looks from the table.

“N- no, I- I need to do this, so to see that- that it’s really over.” Inko says, her tone hardening slightly, getting more resolute, “And also rub it in his face that I’m doing so much better than him now.”

“By having a man missing half of his internal organs due to an unfortunate accident in his youth pretend to be your new husband at his wedding?” Izuku asks, his tone turning sceptical as Ashido and Shinso almost choke on their food at his words.

“No, by bringing in someone that is going to gush about the fine young man he left behind half as much as I would.” Inko replies instead, a small chuckle in her voice, “Don’t worry about me, just be sure to have plenty of rest… maybe spend some time with your new friends while you’re at it, nothing too tiring of course, just- just enjoy your time with them, you always talk about them with such high praise-”

“O- ok mom, sure.” Izuku says, his cheeks getting redder as he eyes the few friends currently with him at his table, “And you be careful there, don’t- don’t let him get you down, I’ll try to call you every night to check how you’re doing ok?”

“That’s my line Izuku.” Inko says with a small chuckle, “I’m your mom Izuku, I’m the one who should be worried about you all the time, that’s my job after all.”

“Sure thing.” Izuku murmurs, a small smile appearing on his lips despite himself, “Bye mom, see you tomorrow before the trip.”

Izuku hangs the phone, his eyes shutting closed as a long sigh escapes his mouth.

“Everything alright, Midori?” Ashido asks, her bowl of meat empty in front of her as she furrows her brows in worry, “You don’t look so good there.”

“Don’t worry Ashido, I’m- I’m just fine. My mother is just going to- to a wedding this week, no big deal.” Izuku replies, his tone almost eerily calm, his eyes still closed, “Oh, and she’s bringing my- my personal trainer, so to speak, as her plus one, pretending to be her new husband, because the groom at the wedding also happens to be my dad.”

“Damn.” Todoroki is the first to talk, breaking the awkward silence Midoriya’s revelation had just brought, his tone as neutral as possible, “That’s rough, Midoriya.”

“W- well, at least now I have Golden Week free.” Izuku says with another sigh, “S- so, sign me up for w- whatever thing you were planning to do Ashido. Whatever it is it’ll definitely beat staying home alone stuck on a bed waiting for my mother’s call every evening.”

“Y- yeah, I’m sure of it.” Ashido replies with an awkward giggle, “Well, that’s me, Midori, Aoyama and Hagakure in, what about you boys?”

“If Midoriya is in it I’m in.” Todoroki says in an almost emotionless tone, startling Izuku’s slightly.

“Really Todoroki? What about your dad?” Shinso asks in a dry tone, his tired eyes fixing onto Todoroki’s heterochromatic ones.

“And what about him?” Todoroki replies, matching Shinso’s stare with his own, “I’m legally an adult, and he’s still at the hospital right now, so it’s not like he can stop me from going anywhere with my friend now, can he?”

“Heck yeah, stick it to the old man, teenage rebellion!” Ashido says in a cheeky tone, “Alright, what about you Shinso? Are you joining too?”

“Sure.” Shinso replies, a strange glint appearing in his eyes as he never moves his gaze away from Todoroki’s, “If Midoriya is there I’ll be there too.”

Todoroki simply hums at Shinso’s words, the temperature in the general space around the table suddenly dropping by a couple degrees.

A perplexed frown appears on Izuku’s brow, staring at his two friends in confusion, completely missing whatever was going on in between them.

“W- well, this is nice and all, but we still don’t know where we’d be going r- really…” Izuku stammers with a nervous chuckle, “You said you wanted to have some sort of c- class trip right Ashido? Do you know any place we might be able to afford for the whole week? M- maybe we can just do some singular trips to different places like the mall or-”

“Oh, what are you guys talking about?” Uraraka butts in, her own meat bowl now empty and discarded on a nearby table, Tsuyu in tow.

“Plans for Golden Week.” Ashido says with a grin, “You girls joining? We were thinking of having a weeklong trip somewhere in the country.”

“Ah, I’d love to…” Uraraka begins with an apologetic chuckle, “B- but I promised my parents I’d get back to our hometown for Golden Week. They’ve been worried sick all tournament, especially after I started using Deku’s Quirk, so I don’t think I can really weasel out of this one-”

“Aw bummer.” Ashido mutters, a strange weight forming at the pit of Izuku’s stomach at Uraraka’s words, “Where’s your hometown? Maybe we can go somewhere close by and come visit you during our trip-”

“Oh, it’s Inaba.” Uraraka says with an almost strained grin, “It’s a rural town, nothing special. My dad has a construction company there, he relocated after he married my mom, she’s the owner of the local inn-”

“Your mom owns an Inn?” Ashido interjects, a sparkle appearing in her eyes, “Why didn’t you say so sooner?

“I mean, there’s really nothing to do there really, and business is pretty slow so it’s not like you’d get to meet anyone really.” Uraraka hastily says with a nervous giggle, “Like, there’s just the inn, some old shops in the shopping district, the community centre, the shrine, the hot springs-”

“Hot springs?!” Ashido almost screams, startling several of their classmates still in the dorms’ main lounge, “Now I’m sold. Call you parents Uraraka, we’re getting reservation for this whole week just to have a shot at those hot springs.”

“They are not that big of a deal…” Uraraka mutters in a dejected tone, other members of class 1-A suddenly starting to crowd at Izuku’s table as they hear about the possibility of an hot spring to appear in their future, “It’d probably just be a giant waste of time for everyone-”

“I don’t know about that Uraraka, kero.” Tsuyu replies from Uraraka’s side as she places one of her fingers to her chin, her finished seafood bowl now resting on a nearby table, “I’ve read somewhere that hot springs have almost miraculous properties when it comes to healing fatigue and mental stress kero. We could try it on Midoriya and see if he’d get better with them, it may even speed up his healing process that way, kero.”

“Oh.” Uraraka and Midoriya both say at the same time, their gazes meeting momentarily.

“W- well, It s- sure wouldn’t hurt to t- try, right U- Uraraka?” Izuku stammers out with a chuckle, “I m- mean, as long as your p- parents are ok with u- us getting t- there, and t- they let us pay us for o- our rooms.”

Uraraka’s brow furrows, a conflicted look appearing on her face as she’s presented with a choice, the gears in her mind turning rapidly as she scans over Izuku’s expecting face.

“Ugh, fine, but only because you’re the one asking me this, Deku.” Uraraka finally concedes, averting her gaze from Izuku with a sigh, Ashido whooping at her friend’s words, “But I’m offering you all no discounts on the rooms, it’s full price of nothing you hear me?”

Izuku chuckles at his classmates’ antics, a small, content smile appearing on his face as he feels everyone’s bonds growing just a little bit closer, the sensation settling warming within his stomach.

Finally putting him at ease.

* * *

“Congratulations!” Anna cheers as she claps, a bright smile on her face as Izuku stands (Stands?) in the middle of the velvet room, yellow eyes alight with mirth.

A spotlight shines from above, the elegant room darkening around Izuku as he looks around in confused bewilderment, new and new spotlights lighting up alongside Anna’s as more and more people join in.

“Congratulations!” Says Igor from behind him, standing for the first time since he had ever known him slightly to the side, clapping his spidery fingers beneath his long nose.

“Congratulations!” Remus caws from atop his Gacha machine, clapping his wings as if they were his hands, a dark, human shadow looming behind him in the velvety drapery behind him, clapping alongside him.

“Congratulations!” Goes Uraraka’s Shadow, her grin wide as white gloved invisible hands float around her, clapping alongside her.

“Congratulations!” Goes Todoroki’s Shadow, sitting on the shoulder of the large minotaur villain from the Sports Festival, the two clapping along together, almost in sync.

“Congratulations!” Goes a blue dressed young woman Izuku doesn’t recognize, her blonde bob cut under a smart blue coloured beret, her hands clapping alongside the others, a broken harp at her feet.

“Congratulations…” Go two high pitched voices, almost reluctantly, as a spotlight opens above two young blonde girls in a police girl costume, blue butterflies flying around them, fractures running through their faces like broken masks.

“Congratulations!” Says another woman in blue Izuku doesn’t recognize, short blonde hair held under a blue circlet, a small, knowing smile on her face, her clapping almost sarcastic.

“Congratulations!” Goes a young man wearing the same blue beret of the blue dressed young woman, a sprouting sapling at his feet, growing from the paved floor of the Velvet Room itself.

“Congratulations!” Goes Nakamura, her trusty scooter at her side, an open basket on the back seat filled with steaming meat bowls, a small smile on her face.

“Congratulations!” Goes Izuku’s mom, a second, so similar yet so different woman standing at her side and clapping alongside her, each wearing a matching, gentle smile.

 **“Congratulations!”** Goes Quixote’s, metal hands clanging along as his horse stands idly in the spotlight, the two standing directly in front of a still stunned Izuku.

**“Thou art I, and I art Thou…”**

The persona begins, armoured gauntlets flowing in the air like a opera conductor, a swirl of his hand making three cards appear in the air.

**“Thy bonds have grown and prospered. This shall bring thou closer to your dreams. Thou shall be blessed when creating Personas of the Jester and Chariot Arcana…”**

The two cards at the sides, Izuku finally recognizing them as Remus’ and Anna’s, shine brightly before disappearing into a burst of light, moving from their previous ranks of II and I to their new ranks of III and II.

**“Thy affinity with the Chariot and Jester Arcana has strengthened. Thou shall now have a discount on their respective services.”**

The card in the middle shines brightly, almost blinding Izuku as it turns into… something, floating gently in front of Izuku’s eyes as he adjusts his sight to it, the clapping growing louder around him as more and more people appear, from blue dressed men in a afro with dark tendrils surrounding them like chains to little kids in white and black striped pyjamas, all clapping along with each other as the sound grows deafening, almost drowning out what Izuku now realizes is Quixote’s booming voice.

**“Thou have managed to put things in motion, the world revolving and spinning around thy dream. Thou have been rewarded by the divine intelligence of the true collective consciousness, to aid you in the trials to come.”**

Izuku’s hands almost mechanically raise up, grasping at the faintly glowing card in his hand, his eyes widening as he recognizes it as a persona card, of the same blue as Quixote’s card, and one he had never seen before.

 **“May your work free and reunite the Brothers from their prisons of golden chains.”** Quixote concludes, the clapping stopping almost instantly as all spotlights disappear, leaving Izuku alone with his Persona and his horse.

**“And may you not fall under the schemes of the Lovers.”**

* * *

Izuku wakes with a start, startling awake in his room, his prepared luggage at his side, Remus cawing awake with a start from his perch on his desk chair.

“W- what was that?” Izuku stammers out, even more out of breath than before, his wide eyes staring at his corvid mentor as cold sweat runs down his spine.

“What was what?” Remus caws in a confused tone, tilting his head to the side as he stares at Izuku almost confused, “I don’t know kid, did you have a nightmare or something? I thought youngsters your age tended to only dream about the girls they liked doing filthy things to them.”

“N- no, it was-” Izuku begins, a faint blush spreading on his cheeks as he tries to put his dream into words, “It was- It was probably nothing, sorry for waking you R- Remus-”

“Eh, sure, whatever, try not to be so loud next time.” Remus caws out with a shrug of his feathers, “Oh, and Izuku?”

“Y- yeah?” Izuku asks, fatigue already setting back up within him as he falls back to a laying position, his eyelids growing heavy.

“I couldn’t say it earlier, but good job on getting among the Top Eight of the Sports Festival.” Remus says with a soft caw, his tone growing fainter and fainter as Izuku slides back into unconsciousness.

“Congratulations, Kid.”

* * *

And so, class 1-A’s fun golden week adventure was set.

Izuku had barely the time to get back home the next day, his mother fussing and freaking out over him before each had to get to their respective trains with their respective luggage.

The older woman is now getting more and more unsure over the whole deal after finally witnessing her son’s condition, fretting over him as worry mounts within her.

“Don’t worry mom I’ll be fine.” Izuku chuckles awkwardly as he, All Might, and his mom finally get into Tatooin Train Station. “My friends promised me they’ll take it easy with me until I’m completely recovered, and I trust them enough to know they’ll go along with it.”

“I know, I know, but you know I still worry.” Inko sighs in response, the younger man wheeling his way alongside her, adamantly refusing both his mother or his mentor’s help. “Look at you, my Izuku, having friends to spend Golden Week with. You’ve grown up so much, I’m so proud of you.”

“M- moooom…!” Izuku almost whines, a faint blush spreading on his cheeks as he ducks his head down, trying to miss All Might’s skeletal form’s cheeky grin. “You do be careful too mom, with… everything, ok? And try to call me if anything awful happens.”

“Sure thing honey, don’t worry.” Inko chuckles out, her eyes moving toward the large timetables currently sporting the various trains’ departures. “I’ll call you as soon as we reach Sumaru City, ok honey? Try not to tire yourself on your trip but do try to have fun, ok?”

“Ok.” Izuku says with a nod, his own eyes scanning the crowd around, searching for his friends, “Oh, and Al- Mr. Toshinori?”

“Yes, young Midoriya?” Toshinori asks, his eyebrows shooting to his airline as he expectantly looks back at his successor. Izuku gestures for him to come near him, the older man kneeling down as his skeletal knees almost whine in protest at the motion, so to be completely level with him.

“You have my full permission to smash.” Izuku says in an almost hushed tone, too low for his mother to hear, but loud enough for Toshinori to understand him, the skeletal man instantly spitting and choking on his own blood in response, startling Inko slightly.

“Oh, ah ah, that was- a very funny joke, Young Midoriya.” All Might chuckles out awkwardly, tiredly standing back up with even more whining coming from his junctures, “Didn’t know you were such a prankster-”

“I wasn’t joking.” Izuku replies in an eerily serious tone, all his awkwardness and insecurities and lack of self-worth melting away into something raw and pure, blossoming onto the young man’s face. “If my- If my dad tries anything funny, or does anything- anything at all, you have my full permission to- _air blast_ him into the stratosphere.”

“Somehow even worse than what I thought you meant-” Toshinori mutters under his breath, some sweat starting to pool at his brow at his student’s sudden and uncharacteristic bout of anger, sunken eyes meeting the unyielding green abyss that is Midoriya’s eyes.

Toshinori’s gaze is the first to falter.

“S- sure thing young Midoriya, I promise I shall be your mother’s stalwart defender in this coming week.” He says in an almost boisterous tone. Inko only looks back at him and her son with a perplexed look on her face, completely missing the exchange even as a small smile appears on her lips.

“ _They must be really close._ ”

“You better.” Izuku mutters, not quite in a dark tone, but getting really close to it as a strange chill runs down Toshinori’s spine at his words.

And then, almost instantly, the moment is broken, Izuku’s dark mood receding back to wherever it came as a smile blossom on Izuku’s face as he finally spots someone in the crowd. “Oh, I think I can see Shoji and some of the others there, I’ll be going then, have a safe trip mom.”

“You too Izuku.” Inko says with a small smile, Izuku wheeling his way toward a large, multi-armed young man towering over the assorted crowds around him, a couple more people she assumes must be their classmates crowding around him, each greeting loudly the incoming young man.

“Look at him, making so many friends, getting into the top hero university in the country, getting into the Top 8 of UA’s Sports Festival… I couldn’t be prouder.” Inko says absentmindedly, her smile turning melancholic as Toshinori’s gaze turns toward her, his own, small smile appearing on his lips.

“That makes two of us, miss Midoriya.” He replies with a sigh, his own eyes moving back to Izuku, the strange chill from before completely forgotten as a small smile appears on his face, as he witnesses his student and his friends moving along the large train station.

“That makes two of us.”

* * *

“Are we there yet?”

“No.” Uraraka sighs for what feels it’s the one hundredth time, her now ever-present headache starting to get worse. “Ashido, we literally left the station ten minutes ago, and it takes at least an hour to get from Musutafu to Inaba, you cannot ask me if we’ve arrived yet every five minutes.”

Ashido whines dejectedly as she sinks within her seat on the high-speed train, looking around the half empty cabin with a dejected frown.

Aside from the members of Class 1-A, it seemed not many other people wanted to go to Inaba, managing to score an entire train car just for the small group of students.

Izuku looks around too, his wheelchair folded and secured on the space under his seat, judging the various states of his classmates.

The train contains tables alongside which large seats are placed, each managing to store up to three people, and yet despite the presence of more than enough seats per cabin, it seemed the fourteen members of Class 1-A currently on the high speed train Musutafu-Inaba had managed to get a cabin all for themselves.

Izuku is sitting at Uraraka, Tsuyu and Shinso’s table, on the seat going to the corridor, Todoroki, Tokoyami and Shoji sitting at the table near theirs, Shoji’s large stature leaving no space for someone else at his side. On the following row from Izuku’s group are Ashido and Kirishima, each seated behind Tsuyu’s and Uraraka’s seats and almost climbing over it to speak with them, with Aoyama almost sprawled over the large seat in front of them.

At their group’s side are Hagakure, Koda, Yaoyorozu and Jiro, the class president idly reading a thick book she had produced out of her bag, as Koda and Hagakure watch the scenery go by from the train, Jiro listening to some music via her jacks.

“Man, but it sure does suck we couldn’t go on as the whole class.” Ashido whines once more, climbing back up the back of Uraraka’s seat as she rests her head on top of it, “Sero, Kirishima and Sato all had prior engagements, and so did Ojiro- when we finally remembered to ask him to join us in our trip a couple hours ago…”

“Yeah.” Kirishima chuckles awkwardly at that, he too climbing up Tsuyu’s seat, arms crossed on top of it, “That wasn’t very manly of us, we should find a way to apologize to him when we get back…”

“Then Bakugou almost blows you up when you ask him if he wants to join in.” Ashido continues, her tone turning slightly sour, “Man, that jerk keeps on getting worser and worser with every passing day…”

“Oh come on, he wasn’t that bad.” Kirishima says with an awkward chuckle, a strained smile appearing on his face “It was my fault really, shouldn’t have sneaked up on him that early in the morning, and he had just lost the Sports Festival pretty big, we shouldn’t be so hard on him over it.”

A pang of something stabs into Izuku’s gut at Kirishima’s words as some strange familiarity washes over him. The more he listens to the redhead’s excuses on Bakugou’s behalf, the more the feeling grows, only for it to be swiftly dashed by Ashido’s next words.

“And then there’s Iida.” She says, the mood in the train carriage growing heavy as everyone seemingly perks their hears at her words, conversations stopping awkwardly as everyone remembers the reason why their usually loud classmate isn’t there with them.

“I wish we could have brought him with us…” Izuku interjects, the first to say what is everyone thinking, “At least- At least he would have had something to occupy his mind while- while he waits for his brother to wake up. I really can’t imagine how he must feel being alone there in his home while we’re here having fun…”

“He has to stay with his family, now more than ever.” Uraraka responds, her darkened mood perking up, if only slightly, as hard determination creeps into her tone, “That’s what he told me when I called him this morning to ask him how he was doing you know? He wants us to have fun even without him and reassured me he was fine, so-”

“Iida told you to have unrestrained wild fun during Golden Week, kero?” Tsuyu butts in with a confused tone, one finger coming to her chin. “You sure he was actually Iida and not one of Midoriya’s shadows having taken over his body, kero?”

“W- well, he actually told me to hold high the name of UA while back in our home village and to check none of us committed any felonies while out of town- But the feeling is basically the same I’m sure of it.” Uraraka says with an awkward chuckle. “I’m pretty sure I could hear the hand chops coming all the way from the other end of the phone while he said that too, so I’m pretty sure no evil Shadow is currently posing as our friend and trying to get us all drunk or anything.”

“Yeah, that’s my job not his.” Ashido says with a cheeky grin, Uraraka sputtering at the pink skinned young woman’s words.

“Nope, no, we’re heroes in training Ashido, which means nothing that could potentially jeopardize our careers such as, I don’t know, taking alcohol before we’re in the legal drinking age.” Uraraka says in an almost stern tone, “As I was saying, I promised Iida we would have had some wholesome, completely legal fun this week and I’m not going back on my word.”

“Damn, with Iida away I guess Uraraka got turned into the new honorary mom friend alongside Yaomomo.” Ashido cheekily says, causing Uraraka to startle even as Kirishima and Tsuyu snigger softly at Ashido’s words, “Fine fine, I’ll try to keep everything PG-13 for now, it’s not like I was going to turn our trip into an orgy or anything.”

Izuku chuckles awkwardly at the exchange, turning back to his side as a pensive Shinso stares at the rolling countryside unfolding on their window.

“I’ve ever been outside of Musutafu before-” Shinso says with a small frown, almost as if sensing Izuku’s stare on him, “Wonder what Inaba is like…”

“Oh, it’s just… a completely normal rural town, nothing too special, nope, nothing at all.” Uraraka says, having apparently heard on Shinso’s words, attracting the attention of some of their other classmates, “As I was saying yesterday, we just have some… relatively popular hot springs, our inn, the community centre, a pretty old shrine… Again, I don’t really see the necessity for any of us to go there for golden week, nothing to do all day, you’ll probably get bored after the first day there, we are just wasting our trip on it-”

“Nah, I feel like a sleepy little rural town is the exact thing we need after all the excitement in the last month.” Ashido replies with a cheeky grin, “And what are you complaining about anyway, we are all paying costumers bringing in our easily impressionable teenage wallets directly to your parent’s doorsteps, I thought you would have loved it Uraraka.”

“That’s the issue-” Uraraka mutters under her breath, low enough Izuku is pretty sure he’s the only one who heard her.

“Just a normal rural town, uh?” One of Shoji’s mouths mutters from his own seat to Izuku’s left, having apparently overheard the whole conversation, his voice as low as Uraraka. “Maybe I should have just bit the bullet and gotten back home this time, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad now that I’ve proved myself at the sports festival…”

Izuku gulps, not really knowing how to respond to any of this, as the train passes inside a mountain tunnel, the fields outside cutting to black as they enter the darkened underpass, the light within the train car dimming accordingly.

The lights go out, almost instantaneously, a couple shrieks or cries of surprises coming from various members of class 1-A as it does so.

“Calm down guys, it’s just a momentary blackout, it usually happens around one of those tunnels, nothing to worry about.” Uraraka says, making light with her phone, “This trains are older than they look and have been malfunctioning for years, but don’t worry guys, in not even a couple minutes we’ll be back out and-”

 _Something_ emits an inhuman wail, right on Uraraka and Izuku’s left, as Uraraka’s phone light is snuffed out, everyone’s phones dying at the same time as complete darkness envelops once again the train car, the students’ nerves fraying as they can hear more than see _something_ shambling in the edge of their vision, their eyes slowly getting adjusted to the absence of light.

“Midoriya for god’s sake is this another of your monsters I swear-” Shinso’s hurriedly whispered words die in his mouth as one, singular yellow eye opens within the void where Todoroki’s group used to sit, a withering mass of pure darkness illuminated by more and more yellow eyes peering malevolently onto the students around it, as a weirdly familiar voice reverberates in the train car, sending a chill down the spines of everyone in the cabin with it.

“BEHOLD, THE INFINITE MALIGNITY OF THE MOON!”

In an instant, Todoroki’s left hand is set alight like a torch light exploding from the writhing mass at Izuku’s side, shining a bright light over the darkened train car, as the writhing mass of shadowy _somethings_ hisses as if in pain, receding back toward the train’s window almost as if shielding itself from Todoroki’s the invasive light.

Another shriek escapes Izuku, followed by everyone else’s screams of surprise, Todoroki seemingly the most startled of them all as he looks at the withering dark abyss at his side in complete bewilderment.

“What the fuck is that?!” Ashido is the first to break the silence, more lights coming from their classmates as they attempt to get a better look at the thing, the creature writhing and shambling on the edge of Todoroki’s seat.

“What.” Todoroki says in a flat tone, the monstrous creature hissing, nay, cawing at him in malevolent anger as its many yellow eyes focus on his blazing hand, the young man following its gaze before looking back at the monster, switching between the two in uncomprehending wonder.

“Wait, isn’t that- Oh crap that’s Tokoyami!” Izuku is the first to realize, his eyes widening, “Or- Dark Shadow I guess? But what’s happening to-”

They finally exit the tunnel, sunlight bursting through the train’s windows as Dark Shadow wither with one, final scream of pain, sinking back into its proper form, fading away from the almost eldritch figure it struck before. The quirk gets smaller and smaller until it finally reveals an almost crying Tokoyami underneath.

An awkward silence fills the room, as Todoroki snuffs out his flaming hand as he gives his classmate one, perplexed look at their side, followed by several more worried or freaked out looks coming from their classmates.

“Well, that… happened.” Shinso says in an almost exasperated tone, a sigh escaping his mouth as he sinks back into his seat, “God, it’s way too early in the morning for this shit-”

“Tokoyami, are you alright?!” Izuku is the first to ask, almost vaulting off his seat, his fatigued body still not cooperating fully with him as he miraculously doesn’t fall down face first against the grimy train car’s floor, Shinso startling at his side and instantly grabbing at his arm before he can unbalance himself further.

“I’m- I’m fine Midoriya, do not worry about me.” Tokoyami says, his breath laboured as one hand comes to a shivering, small dark shadow, stroking its head almost absentmindedly, “I’m- sorry for my previous unsightly display my friends. My Quirk-”

Tokoyami pauses, a wince crossing his face as his grip on Dark Shadow tightens, if just by a little, “My quirk can get a bit overwhelming at times, especially when I’m in completely darkened rooms. I’m- I’m sorry I made you all worry for me for no good reason my friends.”

“You made us worry? More like scared us out of our freaking minds Tokoyami.” Ashido says, perhaps a bit too loudly as Tokoyami only winces at his words, “Damn dude, at least warn a girl next time you want to go full Char Gar Gothakon on our asses, I almost showered you in acid for Pete’s sake!”

“Char Gar what?” Izuku mumbles under his breath, a confused expression on his face perfectly mirrored by Uraraka and Shinso at his table.

“I’ll keep that in mind Ashido, don’t worry.” Tokoyami replies, settling himself back to his previous aloof demeanour, completely ignoring the worried stares of the classmates all around him.

* * *

The train ride thankfully progresses without further accidents, the internal lights coming back up shortly after and never subjecting the class to another blackout, a sigh of relief escaping everyone as they finally descend on the last and only stop of the Musutafu-Inaba direct speed train.

Having finally reached Yasoinaba Station, the students have barely the time to take in the sights before Uraraka all but shoves them toward a bus stop nearby, the gang taking on the local public bus system before, finally, arriving at Uraraka’s family inn.

“Holy shit Uraraka, that inn looks ancient!” Kirishima comments loudly, everyone having gathered at the bottom of the hill on which the Inn is located, their luggage at their sides.

“While I wouldn’t put it in such crass terms, I do agree with Kirishima on this one.” Yaoyorozu says with a small chuckle, “I didn’t know your family owned a traditional inn, especially after not finding a site for it online yesterday. How old is it anyway?”

“We- don’t really have a precise estimate really…” Uraraka says with a chuckle, “Most of it had to be restored after the tumults during the Dawn of Quirks, and we lost most of our pre quirks documentation during that time-”

“Ah, such a venerable inn.” Tokoyami comments with a brooding frown, his usual mood having finally gotten back in full force, “So opulent and imperial, gazing proudly upon its perch above the rest of the town-”

“Damn, that’d mean this thing is an actual traditional Japanese inn older than the Dawn of Quirks, and with annexed hot springs to boot!” Ashido comments with a low whistle, “That’s something way fancier than I expected knowing you, Uraraka.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Uraraka asks, her eyebrows narrowing at the other woman’s comments.

“We better get inside it then, kero.” Tsuyu butts in with a ribbit, one hand coming to Uraraka’s shoulder, “We still need to deposit our bags and get our rooms after all, we will admire the view later kero.”

“Oh, yes, yes, you’re right.” Uraraka says with an awkward chuckle, a sigh escaping her mouth as she and the rest of her classmates run along toward the inn’s entry, “Let’s do that, hopefully my relatives are all too busy with work to-”

“OCHAKO!”

The doors of the Inn burst open as two figures emerge from it, rushing toward the group at breakneck speeds as the members of Class 1-A supress their startled shrieks at the sight.

“A villain attack?! Again?!” Jiro says, her tone sounding more exasperated than scared as she readies her jacks to fight, Kirishima and Shoji at her sides and ready to throw down, followed shortly by the rest of their class.

“Crap.” Uraraka curses under her breath, sentiment completely ruined by the wide, genuine smile starting to spread across her face at the sight of the two figures rushing over her the young woman taking some steps forward before anyone could do something they’d later regret, “Mom, Dad what are you two doing here I thought you were at work!”

“And miss our beloved daughter arrival in town? Nonsense, work can wait!” One of the now no longer blurry figures says with a hearty chuckle, their movements halting right in front of Uraraka. They appear to be a blonde-haired man and an auburn-haired woman wearing yukatas, the class seemingly calming down as they realize the actual identity of their supposed assailants.

“Aw, and you all must be your classmates Ochako.” The woman, Uraraka’s mom says, the blush on her cheeks not dissimilar from Uraraka’s own, “Welcome to the Amagi Inn, also known as the Pride of Inaba. We saw you all at the Sports Festival yesterday, that was some impressive work you all did.”

A couple awkward thank-yous answer the older woman’s praise, her smile growing brighter at the sight.

“Well then, move along now, we better sort you all out in some of ours rooms then.” Uraraka’s father says with his own smile, “Unfortunately we don’t have enough rooms free for all of you, so some will have to share their room with someone else, I hope you will understand…”

“Oh, no, there’s no problem sir, we were expecting to have some of us share a room anyway.” Yaoyorozu butts in with a polite smile as the group reaches the historical inn’s front desk, currently unmanned.

As Uraraka’s mom goes behind it to retrieve a thick, leather bound book from it, the students of class 1-A gingerly remove their shoes at the large inn entry, taking in the sights around them.

“This looks as fancy on the inside as it does on the outside.” Ashido comments with a low whistle, “I was expecting a matchbox abandoned on the side of a dirty country road from how you painted your life home Uraraka, but this- this looks high class girl.”

“This is for the clients Ashido, not us.” Uraraka says with a barely concealed sigh, “This is probably the first time I’m even here as a customer, and I’m paying the same as all of you.”

“Which, again, is completely unnecessary on all of your parts.” Uraraka’s dad replies in a tired tone, starting what Izuku feels must be yet another iteration of the same argument, “It’s your friends Uraraka, and we have the spare rooms anyway, our inn will not crumble just because we give a week away to them, especially with all the free publicity we’re going to get now that our daughter just got into the second place at the UA sports festival, and invited the first place to stay here to boot-”

“Yeah, nope.” Uraraka replies as she pops the p, her mouth taking on a firm line, “No free handouts, neither to me nor my friends. We’re heroes, which means everything we get should be earned, not given out of pity.”

“I wouldn’t mind a free handout actually-” Shinso mutters under his breath, only to be promptly silenced by Uraraka’s sharp elbow to his gut.

“Wait, is that-” Yaoyorozu mutters under her breath, completely missing the conversation around her as her eyes blow wide in recognition. She stares, almost starstruck at the large painting hanging behind the reception’s desk, the young woman getting however instantly cut out of her reprieve as Uraraka’s mom snaps the leather bound book in her hands shut, grabbing back everyone’s attention.

“We have a total of five rooms free at the moment, each allowing up to four people each.” Uraraka’s mom begins with a hum, “There’s fourteen of you, assuming of course our Ochako wants to sleep with her friends in those days, so I hope you all had already decided on who were to bunk with whom on the trip here.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Yaoyorozu says with a polite smile as she produces a piece of paper off her bag, rows of names and numbers scribbled on it.

“We decided not to have the girls bunk alongside the boys for… obvious reasons.” Yaoyorozu says with an awkward chuckle, “So we’ll have Ashido, Jiro and Hagakure take one room, while Uraraka, Asui and Me will take another. As for the boys, Midoriya, Shinso and Todoroki will take one room, Followed by Tokoyami, Koda and Aoyama, and then by Kirishima and Shoji sharing one room together.”

“Sounds fair.” Uraraka’s mother says with a smile, taking in the list from Yaoyorozu’s hand as she transcribes something onto the leather-bound book.

“Lunch will be served in a couple of hours,” Uraraka’s dad continues on as his wife starts handing out keys for each room, “That means you’ll have all the time to get acclimated to your rooms before that.”

“Uraraka can probably show you the town afterwards, so she can show you all the best spots for people your age to hang out.” Uraraka’s dad continues with a small smile, “Maybe you can all even enter into the local fishing competition while you’re at it, but I’m not sure you’ll have much luck with our uncontested champion back in town.”

“Fishing competition, kero?” Tsuyu asks in a perplexed tone, one finger coming to her chin.

“Oh yes, our Ochako has been the uncontested Inaba fishing champion for years, right Ochako?” Uraraka’s dad says, his voice filling with pride as he gushes over his daughter’s accomplishments, the young woman groaning slightly at his words as her cheeks take on a rosier colour, “For two years we didn’t even need to get fish delivered to us for how much she was able to catch in a single day, all between catching bugs and using them as bait and all, a true example of diligence and patience she is.”

“Dad, you’re embarrassing me…” Uraraka can’t help but whine, Izuku letting out a small chuckle at that, “I don’t think my friends really came here to participate in a fishing competition. How about you tell them about the hot springs, or the inn historical value…”

“I’d rather gush over how much of a great woman my daughter girl but oh well…” Uraraka’s dad says with a mock sigh, “Alongside the historical antiquity of our inn, we also house a couple historical artefacts, among them the painting currently behind me, which I’m sure some of you will recognize as-”

“Kitagawa’s _Twin Dragons of Red and Green”_ Yaoyorozu cuts in with a large smile, her eyes glinting as she takes some steps forward, “That’s- That’s one of Kitagawa’s exclusive Shadow Portrait Series, back during his incredibly brief and yet highly prolific impressionist period back in twenty twenty six! It must be worth a fortune, how did you manage to get it?!”

“Oh, uhm… yes, that one.” Uraraka’s dad says in a sheepish tone, “It’s a family heirloom, from my wife family that is, so we didn’t really get it as much as had it ever since it first was created. The painting is supposed to represent two of my wife’s- and obviously Ochako’s- Ancestors, two wives from what I’m led to believe, in the forms-”

“Of twin dragons, as the title suggest.” Yaoyorozu cuts back in with a delighted tone, “Back home we managed to get only three out of all the Portraits in the series, and I’ve only ever seen reproductions of this, I can’t believe I’m actually watching Twin Dragons in the canvas here, where you’d least expected to see it!”

“Is it really that big of a deal?” Uraraka asks in a perplexed tone, “I mean, it’s a family heirloom yeah, and we’ve always known it was worth a lot more than we ever expected, but I don’t really see the appeal-”

“I’m- I’m sorry Uraraka but just look at that!” Yaoyorozu says, her tone almost frenzied as she points at the painting in front of her, “The brushstroke, the lines, the sinuous coils of the green dragon as it entwines with the red and white one into this almost alien sky, almost as if their noodle like bodies were but mere extensions of their passions, chains binding them to each other, the raw feelings of the two figures here represented captured by the expert hand of the artist- How can you not look at this and not be overwhelmed by just how majestic it is?!”

Everyone remains speechless at Uraraka’s outburst, the young woman suddenly realizing she had just become the centre of attention for no other reason but gush over art.

“Oh, uh, at least- at least that’s what I think.” She begins awkwardly, a small blush appearing on her face as she self-consciously starts rubbing one of her elbows, “Sorry sir, I- didn’t want to steal the scene or anything, I’ll try not to say anything next time-”

“Uh, oh no, no need to apologize, it’s always nice to see someone having such an interest in the things they love.” Uraraka’s dad says with an encouraging smile, Yaoyorozu getting back to her spot within the group, “And I’m sure none of your friends will fault you for being so passionate about the things you love right?”

A chorus of words of encouragement erupts from the class, Izuku among the loudest among them as he actively fights for his classmate’s and class president god given right to infodump on the things she likes.

“Thank, guys.” Yaoyorozu replies, a small smile forming on her lips as her blush grows redder.

“So, getting back on top of things. After dinner we’ll open back the local hot springs until midnight. They will follow a gender separation bracket till dinner, with men getting the first hour, followed by women for the second and so on, and will only allow mixed genders in them only in the last two hours between 10 PM and midnight.”

“Needless to say, if any of you is found breaching into the opposite gender’s hours in the hot springs, you will have your hot springs privileges revoked for the rest of the trip, if not outright kicked out of the inn and blacklisted from all future stays here altogether, regardless of sex or even how close they might be with our daughter in the first place.” Uraraka’s mom cuts in from behind the desk, her gentle smile bellying the steel seeping into her voice, “I hope I made myself clear on this.”

“As if any of us would be such an idiot to jeopardize our future careers over something like peeping on our classmates in a hot spring-” Ashido comments under her breath with a snicker, low enough Izuku is pretty sure he’s not supposed to be hearing her, “Especially when stuff like porn exists-”

“Oh, I know that far too well young lady” Uraraka’s mom replies, having apparently heard Ashido’s remark, a faint blush colouring the pink skinned girl’s skin as she realizes she had been heard by someone, “And I know our Ochako would never bring anyone home that she doesn’t trust with her very life, but you have no idea the sort of people who are allowed into hero academies these days.”

“Now, here’s your rooms, you better get yourselves prepared for dinner,” Uraraka’s mom continues, all steel in her voice gone as she gives back a bright smile to her daughter’s friends, “And don’t hesitate to call in one of our maids if you need anything else, you hear me?”

“S- sure thing, Ma’am.” Izuku and some other members of class 1-A reply with a gulp, he and his friends suddenly finding themselves for some inexplicable reason suddenly extremely relieved over the complete lack of degenerate sex offenders in their class.

“That messy green hair- Oh, you must be Deku!” Uraraka’s mom says as she looks down at him with a smile, eyes lighting up in recognition “Ochako has told us so much about you already, but she never mentioned you were on a wheelchair. Is this for what happened at the Sports Festival?”

“Kind of-” Izuku replies with a wary sigh, “My quirk has… some negative side effects on me, among them my… current condition-”

“Oh yeah, you mean the Quirk you accidentally transmitted onto our daughter, right young man?” Uraraka’s dad butts in with the lightest of tones, so offhandedly Izuku almost misses the mounting, irrational fear spreading within his very core at the older man’s words, “The one she’s been using for the entire Sports Festival, right? Do we have to worry our daughter will end up much as in the same condition as you one day? Because I don’t know how I’d react if my only daughter ever found herself into this same situation as you-”

“Dad, stop it already, I’m perfectly fine.” Uraraka says with a sigh, almost instinctively placing herself between her father and Izuku, “He didn’t do anything to me I didn’t want, and my- variant of Izuku’s quirk is less powerful than his anyway, and by that I mean it takes less from me than it does from him, and even if it did, it’d be my reasonably, my fault if I decided to use it, not his.”

“Fine, but it won’t mean I have to like this.” Uraraka’s dad says with a hum, “Your Quirk was perfectly fine as it was, didn’t need someone else to empower it to become the great hero we all knew you are going to be-”

“Oh hush dear, Uraraka is a big girl now and she can make her own choices, and we should support her all the way no matter what.” Uraraka’s mom replies with a small chuckle, earning a small smile from her daughter in turn “As long as she’s being safe about it of course, wouldn’t want to become a Granma this early of course.”

“MOM!” Uraraka’s voice takes such a high volume Izuku can swear Present Mic was the one who had just screamed. Then again, Izuku was a bit too occupied with his current mini heart attack at Uraraka’s mother’s insinuation to really check who was or wasn’t in the room with them.

“What?” Uraraka’s mom asks in a slightly confused tone, the husband at her side stifling a groan at his wife words, “I’ve read about those sorts of things on the internet after you told us the news dear, everyone knows the only way for the few transmittable Quirks out there to be passed on to someone is by ingesting their DNA, I just hope you’ve been taking all precautions to prevent any… unfortunate accidents to happen way earlier than you would like-”

“Oh dear look at the time, we better get going wouldn’t want to miss dinner later!” Uraraka yells out, taking hold of her trolley with one hand, and Izuku’s wheelchair handle with another, and pushing him away from her parents, most of her snickering classmates in tow, and leaving her energetic mother and cringing father behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We start the Inaba Caper, finally.
> 
> My Beta Reader SmashingSkunk53 is back, but unfortunately I have a bunch of papers to prepare for University after this so expect slower updates unfortunately.
> 
> Next Up, some local legends are narrated, new bonds are forged, foxes are consulted, strange fortunes are made over one's love life, as an old ally, way before his time, gives Izuku a visit, at the foot of an ancient shrine.


	21. Story Event: The Inaba Caper, Part 1

After leaving Uraraka’s parents behind, Izuku and his friends decide to finally take their time to empty their suitcases and unpack in their respective communal rooms.

Uraraka’s family inn’s rooms are surprisingly fancier than Izuku expected. He, Shinso and Todoroki have just finished unpacking and are currently taking in the spacious room they’ll have to share for the remainder of the trip.

Contrary to what most people might thing, there WASN’T only one bad. To be precise, there was no bed to share in the first place, but several futons piled up into the room’s wall closet for them to sleep on.

As well as several Yukatas, hanged in that same wardrobe and almost taunting them with their presence.

“D- do you guys think we should put these on for lunch?” Izuku asks in an almost sheepish tone, a small blush appearing on his cheeks at the thought. “I- I don’t think I can do this by myself, and I- I might need either of you to help me putting o- on the yukata…”

Izuku trails off, his blush deepening slightly as an awkward silence fills the room. He can feel his friends’ stare on him with every passing second, and he almost opens back his mouth to take back his previous statement before he’s interrupted by Todoroki and Shinso almost simultaneous answers.

“I guess if no one is willing to help you I can-” Shinso begins, his usually dry tone sounding taking an almost eerily aloof quality as he speaks.

“I will gladly help you out with this Midoriya, it’s the least I can do for you after-” Todoroki says right at the same time as Shinso’s words come out of his mouth, his expression unreadable.

The two hero students stop mid-sentence, finally realizing they’ve been talking over each other. They turn toward one another, almost mirrored flat glares on their respective faces,

“Why Todoroki, I don’t think you should worry yourself over this.” Shinso says, in the politest tone Izuku has ever heard him use. “Especially not after what happened at the Festival to you and your dad, you should take it easy today and leave everything to-”

“No need to worry over me, Shinso.” Todoroki says as his own flat tone takes a similarly polite note. “I don’t mind giving Midoriya a hand in his time of need, you should go out and leave us be for the time being, we’ll call you back when we’re done here.”

“Why you little-” Shinso grumbles under his breath, an almost unnatural grin appearing on his usually sour features, “I think I’ll have to insist, Todoroki. I don’t feel comfortable in letting you burden this too after everything you’ve been going through with your dad getting into an hospital and-”

Izuku’s brows furrow in confusion at the exchange between his new impromptu roommates continues. The two keep on bantering back and forth, each trying their best to almost strong arm the other into giving them the burden of helping Izuku out of the wheelchair he has been confined in for the time being.

Izuku’s eyes suddenly light up in realization as this happens, a content smile appearing on his lips as he, seemingly, connects the dots.

 _“Oh, now I get it!”_ Izuku thinks as he tunes out his friends squabble with a relieved smile. _“They must just be worried for each other! They probably do not want the other to ruin their vacation by having to look after me, especially after the tournament. I didn’t know Todoroki and Shinso were such good friends with each other, but I’m glad they’ve managed to find someone else beside me to be their friend.”_

“And another thing-”

“Oi, love birds, lunch’s ready!” Ashido’s voice bellows from the other side of their room’s sliding doors, startling the three of them out of their progressively more awkward situation, “And don’t bother with the Yukatas yet, Uraraka promised Tsuyu a small tour of the town after lunch, which of course means we’re obviously turning this into a class outing! Try not to be late you three!”

“Uh?” Izuku asks in a confused tone, completely missing the glaring contest currently happening right behind him, “I- I guess we better get going guys.”

Two noncommittal grunts are produced as a response to Izuku’s statement. The three students sheepishly come out of the room, joining up with Ashido and the others soon after in the Inn’s main entrance.

The now reformed group follows Uraraka in the inn’s corridors, Izuku giving out a sigh of relief as he notices how none of them had yet bothered to put a Yukata, before entering the Inn’s main dining room.

The room is large, with low, rectangular wooden tables arranged into a square shape around.

Izuku doesn’t even have the time to start worrying about how is he’s supposed to get down on the matted ground below to eat that Uraraka has already nullified his weight with a single touch, one gentle hand already on his shoulders.

“Let me help you out of that, Deku.” She says with a warm smile, pointedly ignoring Shinso’s and Todoroki’s twin stares as she manhandles Izuku out of his wheelchair. Izuku blushes as she easily pushes him down on the matted floor below, hands never leaving his shoulders, right before annulling her quirk with a simple clap.

“T- thanks-” Izuku says with an awkward chuckle, a small blush appearing on his face at his friend’s help as she gracefully drops down on the seat beside him.

He almost doesn’t notice as Shinso drops to the other seat beside Izuku at almost lightning speed. Todoroki’s reaction is slower, a hum escaping his lips as he drops beside Shinso with a flat stare aimed at the purple haired young man.

“You’re welcome.” Uraraka replies, her warm smile only growing brighter. “My parents never allowed me to help them out with the Inn nor the company when I was growing up, no matter how many times I asked them, but that didn’t mean I never studied how to become a good hostess. I’ll need to if I want to take my parent’s place one day-”

“You’re going to take on the Inn’s reins, kero?” Tsuyu asks in a perplexed tone from her own seat right beside Uraraka, her finger coming to her chin, “I thought your dream was helping out your parents by becoming a Rescue Hero Uraraka, Kero.”

“Oh no, that’s still my childhood dream, don’t worry about it As- Tsuyu.” Uraraka replies with a sheepish chuckle, her ever present blush reddening slightly. “It’s just- I also wanted to help out my family in a more direct way than just- giving them money you know? Either way I’d be helping them out, yes, but there is a big difference between sharing part of my wages as a pro hero with them and taking on an active role here.”

“And even then, it’s not a bad idea to have a-” Uraraka pauses, her brows furrowing as she tries to find the correct word for it, “A contingency plan to fall back to, when I’m too old to actively play my role as a hero anymore, or in case I don’t manage to make it off after University-”

“A contingency plan…” Izuku repeats under his breath, averting his eyes from Uraraka as his brows furrow in thought.

“That was- really well put Uraraka.” Todoroki comments with an almost surprised tone, earning a small bashful chuckle off Uraraka as a result. “The hero business is a cruel mistress after all, no matter how skilful or connected you might be. After all, who knows who any of us will be after university?”

Izuku never even thought about that, about the possibility of doing anything besides becoming a Hero, either before or after meeting All Might and getting a Quirk.

Of doing… anything else to achieve his dream of helping people, of saving as many people as he could, not even that one, terrible moment when All Might had tried to dissuade him out of it.

“ _Not- Not that he was being all that g- good at giving me alternatives w. when you think about it._ ” Izuku thinks grimly to himself, a sigh escaping his mouth. “ _It’s not like the police would have accepted a Quirkless applicant into the academy anyway, not over someone else anyway, same for firefighters or other first responders, hey usually hire applicants based on Quirk affinities even if they don’t have a hero license to use their quirks. I guess I could have become a- social service worker? Might have as well become a cook at that point-”_

“Ah, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue after your performance at the Sports Festival, Uraraka,” Shinso snorts from beside Izuku, startling him out of his pondering, “You are a cute girl with a flashy quirk, I bet whatever you want you’d have drowned in internships recommendations even if you ended up not getting second place at the sports festival, mark my words.”

“Aw, thank you Shinso!” Uraraka says with a polite smile. “And I’m sure the same can be said for you. You weren’t so bad yourself, even if you ended up losing on your second match, I’ve heard a lot of pros were impressed with you Quirk at the Festival, I’m sure you’ll receive plenty of internships too.”

As a slight frown appears on Shinso’s brow at her words, the sliding panels working as doors for the large room slide open, revealing several waitresses of the Inn. One of them moves toward Izuku’s small group, greeting them in an almost emotionless monotone

“Welcome to the Amagi Inn, pearl of Inaba and jewel of-” The unsettlingly familiar drawl begins as a young waitress almost appears behind Izuku and his friends.

“Nakamura?” Izuku asks in a startled tone, eyes widening as he looks up at the familiar delivery girl, currently clad in the same Yukata the waitresses of the Amagi Inn were donning, “What are you doing here?!”

“Oh. It’s you again.” Nakamura replies in a flat tone, staring down at Izuku without much surprise, “And to answer your question, I live here. The cafeteria is closed during Golden Week, and the service workers union in Tokyo won’t let me work at Aiya for the holidays for some weird reason, something about having to use my day off or something.”

She shrugs, earning a sigh off of Izuku in response.

“So you… decided to spend this vacation working at an inn?” Izuku asks in a perplexed tone, “Rather than do anything else at all? Couldn’t you, I don’t know- meet up with some of your school friends maybe rather than take a vacation off of work just to- work even more? This seems a tad too- extreme if you ask me.”

“Said the man who wants to take on three part time jobs while working as a hero student,” Nakamura replies in an almost chiding tone. “Still, the pay is good, and the people here are pretty much family so it’s not that much of a chore really. And it’s not like I’d have anything else to do anyway beside working-”

“Hold on hold on, you’re from Inaba too?” Uraraka asks as her brows furrow, her eyes glazing over as if she’s trying to remember something important, “Now that I think about it, you did look kind of familiar back then-”

Her eyes light up in recognition, as if a fog has been lifted from her mind as a bright smile spreads across her lips.

“Oh yeah, now I remember!” She says as she turns fully toward her, “You’re Nakamura Aiya! We used to go to school together, from preschool all the way to middle school till you had to move to Tokyo for high school- Why didn’t you tell me who you were when met back at UA?!”

“I thought you were just pretending not to know me really, or that you probably didn’t want to be associated with me now that you’re a hero student at UA.” Nakamura replies with a shrug, her words sounding flatter than usual to Izuku’s ears, “Not sure how some of your friends would react to it.”

“Uh?” Uraraka replies with a perplexed tone, her brows furrowing in confusion at Nakamura’s words, “Why would I want to hide me being classmates with you to my friends? If this is because you’re working at the UA cafeteria then I don’t mind, Deku is working there too and none of us is really having an issue with-”

“Oh no, it’s not because of that.” Nakamura replies in the flattest tone Izuku has ever heard her speak in, something stirring within his stomach as Nakamura’s next words come out of her mouth.

“I thought you didn’t want to be associated with me because I’m Quirkless.”

Everything stills at the table, Izuku’s breath catching in his throat as his eyes widen, ever so slightly, his stare switching between Uraraka and Nakamura.

His co-worker’s face is as hard to read as ever, even as she averts her eyes from every single member of the small group, staring intently at somewhere straight in front of her.

Uraraka’s mouth twists into a mortified, almost horrified grimace at Nakamura’s words, her eyes

“W- what? No!” Uraraka almost shouts, attracting the attention of some of the other members of the class, “Why would I- Why would any of us care about something like this, you’re Deku’s friend, you used to be one of my friends growing up, heck even then you’re still a human being, you’re still- still- why the heck would you being Quirkless matter to anyone of us-!”

“I can kind of understand her.” Shinso replies with a pensive tone, a grimace appearing on his own face “You don’t really want to divulge these kinds of things to people unless you know they will not react badly to it, whatever if you have a Quirk people might find- villainous, or if you even have a Quirk at all.”

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but Shinso is right,” one of Shoji’s mouths buts in from beside Tsuyu, “You never know with some of the people out there, and at least Quirkless people can still- decide whatever or not to reveal themselves to other people. Other people don’t- don’t always have this possibility, so I think they should at least try to scrutinize their prospects before revealing themselves.”

“Unless someone else outs them before, kero.” Tsuyu butts in with a ribbit, “It’s a bit the same as with someone sexuality in a way, kero. You never know how someone would react to it, no matter how close they might be to you, until it’s too late to take it back, kero.”

Izuku gulps, the whole situation getting a bit too uncomfortably close to home for his liking. His breathing is speeding up, as is his heartbeat, the young man gulping down the thick lump starting to form in his throat.

He almost misses Todoroki’s stare from beyond Shinso, focusing on him with a worried frown.

“I- I understand.” Uraraka concludes with an almost determined frown, “Or- maybe I don’t, this is not something that is happening to me after all, be it a mutant quirk or a villain quirk or- not having a Quirk at all, so I don’t know how any of you must really feel, but-”

“But I think I understand why you wouldn’t want to tell me- tell us Nakamura about it, why you would think I was trying to hide knowing you from my friends.” Uraraka replies, her determined glare fixing on Nakamura, “But- I want you to understand, that regardless of it, I would never- none of us would ever think any less of you for it!”

A weigh he didn’t know he was carrying lifts from Izuku’s shoulder, ever as some of his friends nod along to Uraraka’s statement. His breath and heartbeat begin to slow down as he manages, somehow, to regain control of his train of thoughts as a relieved sigh escapes his mouth.

Izuku wonders, not for the first time, how… happier his life would have been, had he met any of his classmates, any of his friends back before joining UA.

“Oh yeah, I know that, I was more worried about what some of your- rowdier classmates might think of me.” Nakamura replies with a small shrug, “After all, you did literally roundhouse kick the crap of those kids bullying me for it back at our preschool. I just didn’t want you to get expelled because you did something as drastic as that, not for me at least.”

“Oh yeah, I did that didn’t I…” Uraraka trails off with a sheepish chuckle, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks, “In my defence, I would have sent them literally into orbit if I used my hands on them, and they had it coming anyway, who the heck bullies someone for something completely outside of her control anyway?”

“Statistically, bastards.” Nakamura drawls in a flat tone, Izuku choking on his spit at her blunt words, “Anyway, this has been- educational dare I say, but you still need to give me your orders for dinner, and I can see most of the other waitresses have already finished with theirs, can’t have them steal all of my tips again.”

“So, What can I bring for you today?”

* * *

After their scrumptious meal at the Amagi Inn, our heroes in training finally took their first real look at the town of Inaba, and what adventures it had in store for them.

They have descended upon their first stop in their “voyage,” the large open park and road beside the local river, right below the steps leading to Uraraka’s family inn.

The large group of fourteen has been split into several smaller groups, each enjoying the warm sunlight on the grass, either enjoying the sight of the calm river in front of them or drowning in the veritable sea of felines that had been seemingly been summoned by Koda’s very presence.

As all of this was happening, Uraraka and the two de facto organizers of the trip were conspiring amongst themselves, discussing their plans on the trip they has all decided to partake in as they take a stroll up and down the large road above the riverbank.

“For the hundred time Ashido, we don’t really have so much stuff going on here-” Uraraka almost whines, even as she almost begrudgingly stands around her milling classmates, “It’s just a boring small town where nothing ever happens, I think you’re expecting way too much out of this trip-”

“We’ll be the judge of that, Uraraka.” Ashido replies with an almost smug grin, “From your tales from your home you always painted it as if you were living under a bridge inside a shoebox, and now we discover your family inn is actually way fancier than you made it sound like girl, it’s obvious you are a terrible judge of character when it comes to places!”

Uraraka’s hands grips tighter the handles of Izuku’s wheelchair, the young man looking up at his friends with a hint of worry in his eyes.

“Fine, whatever, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Uraraka drawls out with a sigh, gesturing dismissively to the river below as she does so “Anyway, here’s the local river, we have weekly fishing competitions here, a lot of people in the town show up trying to catch the most or the biggest fishes of all, this week is due tomorrow so we can come and spectate it if you want but it’s not really that big of a deal-”

“But- Wouldn’t that drastically reduce the amount of fishes in the river?” Izuku asks in a perplexed tone, looking up from his seat toward the young woman behind him, “If a lot of fishes get caught every week the river will end up barren surprisingly fast, how is that in any way sustainable for the town?”

“You’d be surprised, Deku.” Uraraka replies with a small smile, “The fishes here have… peculiar mating and feeding habits to say the least. Most of them only respond to high quality bait, and the river is always filled with so much fish it has even spawned some sort of- local legend about this ancient river god taking the form of a giant fish warding the river and replenishing it with new off springs every new week. Heck, I’d say we’re almost forced to have our competitions least we end up with the river getting overpopulated.”

“See Uraraka, this seems way cooler than you made it sound at first.” Ashido butts in with a cheeky grin, “Monstrous cryptids partaking into weekly fish orgies, I guess Tokoyami is going to love this new and unexpected Lovecraftian twist!”

Uraraka sputters at Ashido’s words, almost derailing Izuku’s wheelchair in the process as she did so, much to the young main’s chagrin.

“There is no such thing as- as fish orgies!” Uraraka almost screams as a deep blush overtakes her cheeks, attracting the attention of several of their other classmates as well as some of the few elderly passer-byes.

“That’s what someone who would hide the fish orgies from her beloved friends would say.” Ashido replies with a smirk and an accusatory finger pointed at her friend, completely ignoring Uraraka’s tired groan at her words “Water breathing debauchery aside, anything else cool you forgot to tell us, like, I don’t know, the local high school being haunted or something?”

Uraraka’s glare collides harmlessly against Ashido’s large, carefree grin, much to the brunette’s chagrin, before a small sigh escapes her lips in defeat.

“Nothing cool- or supernatural for that matter- ever happens in this town.” Uraraka replies with the vehemence and certainty of a sceptic who would die in the first twenty minutes of any horror movie out there, “We just have our fishing competition-”

“Done on a seemingly magically refilling river.” Izuku butts in with an almost absent-minded tone, eyes fixed on the clear waters gracing the dusty river shore below them, fingers already twitching at his side, “That must be the work of a strong Quirk-”

“Our fishing competition.” Uraraka continues as she valiantly ignores Izuku’s interruption, “The local shrine, which is particularly well kept despite its advanced age, the historic shopping district for some of the more- traditional shops, and the community centre if you don’t really have anything better to do.”

“Community centre?” Ashido asks in a perplexed tone, Uraraka simply pointing at a large, old looking conglomerate of grey buildings on the other side of town.

“Oh, it’s that insult to good taste over there.” Uraraka says with no real heat in her voice, “It used to be this big mall owned by a large chain of supermarkets across the country back in the pre quirk era, but then the chain failed a couple centuries ago and the mall was closed as a result. To think, It almost sent the town on the brink of collapse by how much we were depending on it economically.”

“The town managed to pull over, fortunately,” Uraraka replies with a small smile, “So the whole building was repurposed as a community lead centre instead. It has recreational activities, a mess hall- which is incidentally also being catered by our inn- a large open space for concerts or other such events, several workshops, a couple classes, cheap housing for the very few homeless people who stray into town, a couple internet points, a library, they even repurposed the old hardware store into a small cinema with one of the old televisions there-”

“Oh darn, so it’s a hippie commune then.” Ashido replies with a small grin, “Do you think they have some underground farm where they grow the good stuff in between a fish orgy and another or-”

“Ashido, It’s a small-town lead community centre in the middle of Nowhere, Japan.” Uraraka drawls out with an almost exasperated look on her face, “Of course our- “good stuff” is all approved by the state and grown in perfectly legal fields outside of our community centre, what did you take us for, savages?”

Now is Ashido’s turn to choke on her own spit, as is Izuku, the two young heroes in training completely missing the sides of Uraraka’s lips twitching at her friends’ reaction.

“U- Uraraka, are you for real?” Ashido shoots back as she finally gets back her bearings, her wide, dark eyes staring deeply into Uraraka’s own, “Damn girl, that’s hardcore, how did they manage to get a license for that, I thought the government were really stingy when handing out permits for that kind of stuff-”

“Yeah, no, I’m just messing with you.” Uraraka replies with a small sigh, valiantly ignoring Ashido’s whine at her reveal. “Still, we do have some incredibly- addictive produce on our vegetable market back at the community centre, all locally grown and stuff, some even say it has some sort of- strange properties, but nothing too big really.”

“Define- strange.” Ashido replies with a suspicious look in her eyes.

“Let’s just say we can grow some- really good tomatoes here and leave it at that.” Uraraka replies with an awkward chuckle, “Like, remember when I said the town managed to pull through? Story goes one young farmer had apparently inherited her grandpa’s old family farm, a small backyard garden really, and that in not even three years she had managed to bring Inaba our of our recession and complete the Community Centre into what it is today.”

“By- starting a marijuana farm?” Izuku replies in a disbelieving tone, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, “I can see that happening.”

“Again, no Marijuana, she just started by cultivating tomato seeds and other things like that,” Uraraka replies back with a huff, “But apparently the soil of her farm is so good, no matter what you grow on It, it will always gain some kind of… property, so to speak.”

“Oh, so now is a magical marijuana farm.” Ashido replies with a disbelieving drawl, “Are you sure you are not messing with me Uraraka?”

“It’s not Marijuana.” Uraraka repeats once again with an almost exasperated tone, “We don’t even have a Marijuana farm in this town- at least not that I know of, not that we need to anyway given how some of our melons are apparently so good many have claimed to have transcended their physical bodies while consuming them, someone say they could bring someone back even from the brink of death.”

“Damn, is that the reason why you and Asui were so eager to get Midori here all alone with you two?” Ashido replies with a mischievous smirk on her face. “Heard that Midori? Uraraka here is offering you some of her thick, soft juicy melons to make you feel better. Never would have expected that from her…”

Silence reigns as Ashido trails off, Izuku and Uraraka giving their pink skinned friend a matching set of horrified stares as their complexion gets redder and redder. Actual steam starts streaming out their hears as their horror switches from Ashido to each other, the two hero students instantly averting their eyes from the other as Uraraka self-consciously starts hugging her midsection.

Ashido’s eyebrows jump up to her airline, the young woman staring at her classmates in slightly puzzlement, “Damn, one produce-based joke and you turn into two blushing messes already? What would have happened if I had said something like: “Hey Midori, Uraraka’s melons are good and all, but do you know what else you can eat off her to feel better? Her pu-””

An incomprehensible cry escapes Uraraka’s lips as it cuts off Ashido’s words, sounding like the death wail of a strangled sea monster sinking back into the ocean as hers and Izuku’s complexions manage to somehow turn even redder than before, his eyes glazed over and almost dead as they stare off into the distance.

Ashido’s smile turns mischievous at the sight, licking her lips as she basks into her friends’ sudden awkwardness.

“Ooooh, this trip has just gotten a lot more interesting.”

* * *

The gang’s second destination was the town’s historic shopping district, the long road departing from the gas station near one of the local bus stops, all the way toward the small hill where the local historic shrine had been built.

“Ok, not gona lie-” Ashido begins, breaking the silence that had started reigning over the group, “This is way more underwhelming than I expected.”

“See, completely normal town with her incredibly normal and yet so incredibly boring shopping district.” Uraraka says with a nervous chuckle, her cheeks still slightly reddened as she and the gang march forward, “Just some tofu shop, a bookstore, an herbal medicine shop-”

“And a- Samurai shop?!” Kirishima interrupts Uraraka’s description, his eyes lighting up instantly at the sight of one of the shops in the road, a suit of Armor exposed right outside, “That’s so freaking manly, what’s that shop for?!”

“Oh, that?” Uraraka hesitantly replies in an airy tone, even as she cringes slightly at Kirishima sudden attention, “That’s just our- blacksmith, I guess. Well, kind of our blacksmith, it’s more like a novelty shop, Miss Daidara has been running her family shop for the last- couple decades really and has been forging replicas of famous weapons and armours from the years past for longer than that. She mostly sells them off as souvenirs to the few tourists that come by her shop, maybe some out of town commissions when she is feeling the most inspired, nothing too special.”

“Holy shit, for real?” Kirishima says in an almost giddy tone, “I can get myself a real-life Katana like a badass samurai of old! Sero and Kaminari are going to be so bummed they missed the trip once I show them a picture of it, be right back!”

“Wait, hold on!” Ashido tries to butt in but is already too late, Kirishima having already disappeared inside the weapon shop, “Damn you Kirishima, preferring some cheap replicas to a day with your classmates-”

“Even a cheap replica can become a mighty weapon in the hands of a hardened warrior, Ashido,” Tokoyami replies with a brooding tone as he takes one step forward, hand dramatically raised into the air, “Me and Dark Shadow shall join our boisterous friend in his endeavour. Maybe they’ll manage to forge us a weapon fitting for our dark and tortured souls.”

Something sounding suspiciously like _Chunibyos_ is muttered from within the shadows of Tokoyami’s shirt, the raven headed young man valiantly ignoring it or his classmates’ stares as he strides toward the shop Kirishima had disappeared into.

“Boys with their toys.” Jiro butts in with a tired sigh, turning back toward a silent Yaoyorozu at her side, “Would you believe that Yaomomo, getting all flustered over some-”

“That’s some good replica armour they have right there.” Yaoyorozu replies in a droning tone, eyes sparkling as she everything but salivates at the sight, “The craftsmanship must be exceptional, that’s not some simple blacksmith bending cheap metal, that’s an artist giving life to her creations… I must have a word with her, imagine all the things I could produce with her guidance.”

“Wait, Yaomomo hold on-” Jiro’s words fall to deaf ears as Yaoyorozu rushes forward, the other young woman groaning in exasperation before following her back in.

“And off they go.” Ashido comments with a sigh,

“Great.” Uraraka curses under her breath, low enough only Izuku can hear her, “Effing great.”

“Didn’t know we could start splitting up already.” Todoroki butts in in a flat tone as he sees his classmates leave for the nearby shop.

“We aren’t.” Ashido replies with a tired sigh, “Or at least we weren’t till a couple minutes ago.”

“But now we are?” Izuku asks in a perplexed tone, his brows furrowing slightly in confusion.

“I guess so.” Ashido groans with a shrug, “Fine, whatever, we lost 4 members of the squad already anyway, anyone else wants to bail?”

“Uhm. Koda wanted to go check the Tofu shop.” Hagakure chirps in with an awkward chuckle, her shy classmate blushing slightly at her side, “He’s been trying to tell you ever since Uraraka mentioned it but didn’t want to be a bother to anyone, but since everyone is going where they want already.”

“And I spotted with my little eye a fabric shop over there,” Aoyama butts in with a smirk and a pirouette, “I must check on it, I’m sure such hard workers from our dear Uraraka’s hometown will be able to produce a cape worthy of my twinkly radiance!”

“I wouldn’t mind checking the bookstore, kero.” Tsuyu replies with a pensive tone, “I need to think of something to bring back to my siblings back home as a souvenir anyway, and I think I saw the last book from the Witch Detective series on display and god knows how much they love that book series, kero.”

“Family.” Todoroki murmurs under his breath, blank stare off into the distance, “I also have a family. I should get Fuyumi something too-”

“Oh come on, we’re irresponsible young teens, shouldn’t we leave searching for gifts to the last possible second of our trip?” Uraraka weakly protests, a nervous smile appearing on her face even as more and more of her classmates abandon the main group to visit each a different shop, “How about we just go to Okina city today? It’s a short train ride away and I think they should have a movie we would all love to see, let’s all forget about this town for a little while and go for it-”

Uraraka is completely ignored as her classmates as more and more of them go visit the local shops, leaving her, Izuku, Ashido and Shinso back at the local gas station.

“And then there were four.” Shinso mutters with a smirk, completely ignoring Uraraka’s sigh of defeat as he gently takes hold of Izuku’s wheelchair from her, “So, Midoriya, any place in particular you want to visit first?”

Izuku hums, the young man giving a concerned look to his other friend beside him, “W- well, Uraraka mentioned some miracle working melons that could help out with my current condition-”

“I’m sorry Deku but It’s not season for those yet,” Uraraka replies in a defeated tone, “And even then we would need to go to the Community Centre to get them, and I’d rather remove this band aid all together

“You know, if I didn’t know any better Uraraka, I’d say you don’t want any of us here.” Shinso points out with a low whistle, eliciting a hum from Ashido beside him.

“I’ll have to agree on Purple on that one, girl” Ashido cheekily replies, causing Shinso to sputter at the impromptu nickname, “And you know what, I don’t get it. This place is great! Yeah, it’s a bit rough around the edges, but your parents are incredibly nice, and your family Inn isn’t that bad either, why wouldn’t you want any of your friends here?”

“It’s not like I- don’t want you here…” Uraraka awkwardly replies with a chuckle, “It’s just that- I don’t want you to interact with… many other people that’s all.”

“Why? Afraid they’ll tell us embarrassing stories about your childhood or something?” Shinso asks in a confused tone, “I mean, according to that one waitress you did use to kick the crap out of bullies for a living back then, I don’t see how would any of us think any less of you for it-”

“Or maybe they are all part of a cult to some ancient fish god worshipers who sacrifice tourists to it to ensure the continuation of their evil fish orgies, and she’s trying to keep us away from them for our own good-” Ashido jokingly replies, only for her eyes to widen in realization at her own words, “Hold on hold on hold on, is that how you manage to always get the river filled with fishes in time every new week? I’ve connected the dots, haven’t I?”

“W- what? No, that’s insane!” Uraraka sputters out, her tone getting one note higher, “There is no- tourist sacrificing cult or other nonsense like that here, do you even listen to yourself?!”

“This is what someone in an evil cult that sacrifices tourists to their orgy having fish gods would say Uraraka... If that is even your real surname!” Ashido replies as she triumphantly points her finger to Uraraka, “Why wouldn’t you want any of us here otherwise?!”

“It’s because-” Uraraka stops with a groan, averting her eyes from her friends as she takes one tentative deep breath, “Because…”

Izuku’s brow creases in worry as he looks up at his friend, but the young man doesn’t even have the time to open his mouth to ask her how she’s doing that Uraraka’s hands snap together with a loud clap. Izuku startles at the sudden sound, as do Ashido and Shinso even as Uraraka turns toward them with a cheerful smile on her face.

“Does anyone else here want to go to the local shrine?” She asks, perhaps a bit too casually as her cheeks grow rosier “I think I want to go to the local shrine, if anyone comes looking for me tell them I’m just looking for some quality bait there, ok?”

And without even waiting for her friends’ answers, Uraraka does a perfect 180° degrees turn and starts marching off toward the large, red _torii_ working as an entrance to the nearby shrine’s large courtyard.

“U- Uraraka, wait!” Izuku calls off after her in a startled tone. He attempts to get off his wheelchair and chase after her. His heavy limbs are barely responding, so much Shinso and Ashido must physically stop him from launching himself off his wheelchair and down against the asphalt below.

“Oh, yeah, forgot I was still stuck on this thing.” Izuku sheepishly says, a sigh escaping his mouth as he stares at Uraraka’s back, the young woman still defiantly ignoring them crosses the shrine large gate.

“Damn, maybe we did push Uraraka a bit too much today.” Ashido comments with a frown, her hand still placed on Izuku’s shoulder even as she looks on at her departing friend with a frown, “I still don’t get why she was so against all of us coming here, this place doesn’t look so bad.”

“Yeah.” Izuku murmurs, the young man staring forlornly at his retreating and apparently distressed friend’s back, completely unaware of the other set of eyes staring down at his own distress with an expression almost mirroring his own.

“God, I know I’m going to regret saying this later-” Izuku barely manages to catch getting murmured before Shinso clears his throat a bit too loudly to be normal.

“You know, I bet if Midoriya here asks her she’s going to tell him.” Shinso finally hums from Izuku’s other side after what feels like forever.

A far too fixed smirk appears on the purple haired young man’s face as he looks down at his friend with a sigh, “After all, she did only agree to this trip after Midoriya here asked her to. I bet if you went there right now and asked her what was wrong, she is probably going to tell you.”

Izuku stares up dumbly at his friend, his brows furrowed into a frown as Shinso’s words completely fail to sink in. The two young men stare at each other for a long, silent couple of seconds, the small moment highlighted by a perplexed Ashido first looking at Izuku, then at Shinso, and then once again at Izuku as if this was a Tennis match, waiting for either young man’s next move.

“Oh for the love of-” Shinso finally gives up with a groan, “This was a not so subtle suggestion for you to go after her and ask her what’s wrong with her, Midoriya, please don’t make me spell it out for you.”

“W- what?” Izuku finally stammers out, “Wait, w- why me?! A- as a girl, w- wouldn’t Ashido be better suited for t- that? O- or maybe T- Tsuyu once she comes back-”

“Yeah, that would probably get her to turtle up more knowing her,” Ashido replies with a sigh, “Purple is right on this one Midori, she’ll going to open up to you more than she’s going to do with any of us, so- go after her Midori.”

Izuku can only gulp as he feels the expectant stares coming from his two classmates, the young man giving out an awkward chuckle before finally steeling himself.

“Oh, uh- O- Ok, fine, I’ll go check on U- Uraraka now!” Izuku miraculously manages to stammer out, giving his two friends a hasty farewell before wheeling off after where Uraraka at recently disappeared.

The two classmates look after him for a while, the young green haired man crossing the large red gate of the shrine with little difficulty

“So, that was awfully nice of you, setting up your crush with his own crush.” Ashido comments with a small smirk, her words taking a couple seconds to get registered by Shinso. Ashido doesn’t seem to react as her classmate freezes, almost imperceptibly at her side, even as her smirk slowly turns mischievous, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you had a heart you know?”

“I have- absolutely no idea what you are talking about, Ashido.” Shinso manages to stiffly drones out in a perhaps too sedated tone, “And honestly? I’d rather prefer you didn’t start- spreading all these kind of slanderous misinformation around, as if I’d ever show everyone that I have a heart… Which, by the way? I don’t, for your information.”

“Yeah right, you can’t fool a shipper Shinso, especially not one who loves gossiping as much as I do!” Ashido replies with a small giggle, finally turning toward him with a sly smirk, “Then again, maybe you are right. You were probably just trying to get yourself an exclusive one on one date with little old me for all I know, getting Midori out of the way was just a way to achieve that am I right?”

Shinso can’t help but give his cheeky classmate a flat stare at her words, Ashido’s smirk growing wider and cheekier as he does so.

“I am sorry, Ashido, truly, I am.” Shinso finally replies in the most unapologetic tone known to man. “But I’m afraid you’re not exactly my type.”

“Oh, you wound me Purple!” Ashido replies in a melodramatic tone, one hand coming to her heart and squeezing “Please tell me, is it the too much pink or is it the complete lack of green?”

“It’s because you’re not a Twink, Ashido.” Shinso replies in a flat tone, a faint smirk appearing on his lips still.

“Oh my god, you have a crush on Aoyama too?!” Ashido replies without even missing a beat, “Dude, I’m sorry to say this, but your taste in men is shit.”

“I do not have a crush on- Oh, you know what? Forget it.” Shinso replies with a defeated sigh, “I’m going to get my own gift shopping while Midoriya and Uraraka are occupied being disgusting together, you can come with me or you can stay here creeping on them, your choice, I don’t care.”

And with that he’s off, powerwalking away from Ashido toward one of the nearby shops without even looking back, Ashido following him shortly after with a surprised squeak.

* * *

The large courtyard of Inaba’s Tatsuhime Shrine was, on one hand, wheelchair accessible, much to Izuku’s relief.

On the other hand, unfortunately, it also happened to be completely devoid of any sign of human life at the moment.

Izuku’s brows furrow in confusion at the distinct lack of Urarakas, or anyone else for that matter, in the large courtyard he had so hastily wheeled himself to.

The large, ancient looking shrine looms silently over him, almost judging him as he searches for his seemingly missing friend.

“This place doesn’t seem that big, where can she have gone?” Izuku mutters to himself, scanning over the nearby small altar behind another, smaller red _torii_ , before looking at the small grove of trees nearby, “Where are you, Uraraka?”

The wind seems to pick up at his words, Izuku raising his gaze with a sigh as the gentle breeze sweeps his face. Despite the situation, Izuku must admit the shrine does look incredibly well maintained, the early evening light painting it in an almost mystical hue.

Izuku has little time to admire the view however before _something_ loudly smacks right against his brows, obscuring his vision and making him yelp in surprise. Izuku startles, another undignified sound escaping his mouth as he hastily reaches for the offending object, a large slip of paper currently permeating his face.

“What the-” Izuku finally sputters out as he manages to remove the once floating piece of paper away from his face, bleary eyes preening over it with a cough, “What is this thing?”

It seems to be a normal notebook page, torn off its original book to be, apparently, left floating through the winds of Inaba just to land smackdab against Izuku’s face. Izuku’s brow furrows in confusion as he notices the writing on the piece of paper, several words having been written on it.

“Sheep amongst Wolves.” Izuku begins to read, his brows furrowing further as he realizes what he’s holding in his hands, “This looks like a- poem I guess, I wonder what’s it doing here at a shrine-”

A cacophonous wail seems to explode from the small shrine on Izuku’s left, the young man jumping in fright on his wheelchair as an incredibly wrinkled hand descends upon the piece of paper currently in his grip and yanks it away.

Izuku turns in surprise, coming face to face with the reddened face of an old woman, the poem that had come slamming against his head now clutched tightly in one of her hands.

She’s a perplexing sight, dressed in a Kimono, white and red like the ones of a shrine maiden even despite her wrinkled skin and her far advanced age. Curved, she stands hunched with the help of a walking cane, her white hair has been cropped short, held together under a blue beret, an equally blue handbag slumped over her left side as well as a look of absolute hatred shining on her features, directed right at Izuku’s still wheelchair ridden form.

“You- you’re reading my poetry again you stupiddumbassidiotpervertbastardsheep!” She wails off at him, Izuku startling under the weight of her anger as he cautiously wheels an away from her, “How? How do you keep finding them, even here and now you- you sheep! It’s been fucking centuries just STOP reading my shit for once in your stupid life!”

“I- I’m sorry Mrs!” Izuku stammers out, frantically trying to apologize to the irate older woman currently waving her cane dangerously in front of her, “I- if t- this is about the poem, I’m sorry I didn’t want to look at it I swear!”

“Oh yeah sure, that’s what you always say you stupidfilthydumbasspervertsheep!” She continues, a small part of Izuku’s brain marvelling at her impressive lungs capacity even as he slowly wheels away from the range of her walking cane, “A few honeyed words and that roguish smile of yours and you expect me to forgive and forget everything as usual, well you’re not getting away with it this time mister, no sir!”

“Miss, please, I- I’m afraid you must have mistaken me for someone else.” Izuku replies in an almost pleading tone, raising his hands in what he hopes is a placating way as he tries to defuse the situation, “I am not-”

The old woman scoffs at his words, finally slamming her cane down to the ground “Don’t try to muddy the waters Yu, I know exactly who you are, you dumb-”

She stops, the old woman squinting her eyes at Izuku with a pensive hum, Izuku giving a small sigh of relief as she seems to have finally calmed down a little.

“Now that you mention it- Those hair looks like the wrong shade of grey now that I look at them better.” The old woman finally says, her tone getting more and more subdued with each word, “Far too light for my tastes, and those eyes, they are al wrong, far too- innocent-”

“M- my hair is green, M- Mrs-” Izuku sheepishly replies, even as he is completely ignored by the old woman in front of him.

"Is it, isn't it?" She asks, her tone almost absent minded as a sigh escapes her mouth.

“Oh dear, you’re not him, aren’t you?” The old woman finally says, her knees buckling slightly with her trembling words.

“N- no I’m not.” Izuku replies, an awkward chuckle traitorously escaping his mouth, “I’m- I’m sorry?”

She sighs again as she closes her eyes for one moment, before a small, melancholic smile that doesn't reach her eyes graces her face.

“Sorry for what? I was the idiot that mistook you for someone you weren’t.” The old woman says as she opens back her eyes, “Please forgive this old crone, you just- really reminded me of someone- someone I used to know in my youth for some reason.”

“N- no problem.” Izuku replies, the young man “He- he sounded like someone important to you, I’m- I’m sorry I- wasn’t the one you thought I was, I- I guess.”

“Oh, now I know you can’t be him; you’re apologizing way too much and for something you didn’t even do,” She replies with a small giggle, a faint blush appearing on Izuku’s cheeks at her words, “Now he? He was a right scoundrel, breaking hearts left and right with that charm of his without even realizing it, never telling anyone he was sorry for it.”

“That- doesn’t sound like a nice person.” Izuku says with a small frown, only to elicit a laugh from the old woman in front of him.

“Oh, he was probably the nicest person you’d ever meet actually.” She says in between laughter, “In the end, all he did he did it for me, for our- our family, he just…”

She trails off with a sigh, Izuku’s frown only growing deeper at her words, “He just didn’t know when to stop picking up people for his own good, that stupid dumbass with those infuriatingly good looks of his, no wonder everyone else kept falling at his feet too.”

“Ah, if- if that’s the c- case then he r- really doesn’t sound like me then.” Izuku says, one hand awkwardly coming to scratch the back of his neck as he talks, “I’m far from- breaking hearts left and right like you said, and I’m probably the plainest man in all of japan, I doubt I’d ever have the charm or bravery to act upon it you say your- friend had.”

“Mmmmm, now that I’m getting a better look at you, I don’t know about that, kid.” The old woman butts in with a pensive hum, squinting once again her eyes toward him “I might not be the Nose nor that- sadistic, stud-keeping secretary of his, but I knows enough of their business to recognize someone whose connection are on the cusp of blossoming into something- _more_ you know?”

“S- something… _more_? What d- do you mean something m- _more_?” Izuku asks in a startled tone, his cheeks growing redder as he averts his eyes from her, “I- I’m not sure if I want to have- anything m- more, really.”

“Nonsense young man, everyone always wants more than they can have, trust me on this!” The old woman replies with a small, self-satisfied smirk, “In fact, this shrine is after all famous for their perfect fortunes when it comes to someone’s love life. Why, if you were to provide us with a- generous offer, we might even able to influence said fortunes to better suit your tastes.”

“I- I- T- thank you, but I’m- quite content with my relationship at the m- moment.” Izuku says after a small pause, startled by the sudden shift in conversation topics, “A- at the moment I j- just want to w- work on my- on my career and m- my studies r- really, I’m q- quite content with j- just having friends for once-”

“Really? Don’t you have anyone in mind you might want to get- closer with perhaps?” The old woman shoots back with a conspiratorial tone, leaning closer to Izuku with every word.

There are, in fact, several someones suddenly coming to Izuku’s mind at the old woman’s words, much to the young man embarrassment. He coughs loudly, choking on his own spit as he tries to keep his blush down before swallowing his saliva down with a loud gulp.

“E- even if t- there w- were- And I’m not saying there are t- this is just- hypothetically speaking-” Izuku finally manages to stammer out, only earning another smirk from the old woman beside him, “Even then, I c- can’t really force them to d- do anything they don’t want, and I- I’d rather have them be my friend t- than ruin everything at once like- like I know I’d do if I tried to go for it.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised young man!” The old woman repliesback. “Still, I think I’ll give you the advice I wish someone had given That-”

Her voice wavers, if only for a second, before she picks up from where she left of, “That idiot husband of mine back in our youth: Don’t try to make everyone happy at once.”

Her tone is almost solemn, light green eyes staring down into Izuku’s very soul and making the younger man gulp as she continues with her warning, “No matter what happens, no matter who you might hurt in the process, try to choose someone and stick with it to the end, least you ended up committing the same mistakes like that idiot husband of mine or that other two dumbasses he met at that stupid cinema of his.”

“S- so, from w- what I understand what you’re saying is- is t- that I shouldn’t play around with anyone’s feeling or I might hurt them like- like your husband did to you?” Izuku asks with an almost pained tone, “I’m- I’m sorry that had to happen to you, Mrs! I’m- I’m sure he d- didn’t want to hurt y- you like he d- did-”

“What? Oh gods kid what are you talking about?!” The old woman shouts back, her eyes widening in surprise, “Me? Getting hurt? Over him? Yeah right, get real kid, he was the idiot who decided to get himself into the middle of a polyamory relationship, not me.”

“Uh?” Izuku asks back, confusion plainly written on his face as the old woman seems to just laugh at him.

“Did you even read this stupid poem after you stole it from me kid?” The old woman asks in an almost exasperated tone, “It’s called sheep among wolves for a reason, _He_ was the dumb sheep too juicy for his own good, and all of us were the hungry wolves who had just realized how much of a numerical superiority we had on him, tied him up real good and started all- _dating_ each other and him!”

“Oh.” Izuku breaths out, his confusion persisting for only another second before realization finally strike him as his eyes widen almost comically, “OH!”

“Poor sheep, we devoured him all nice and slow over the years, left him almost dry in the end.” The old woman reminisces with a far more nostalgic tone that Izuku would have expected from her given the subject matter. “Well, at least he died doing what he loved, surrounded by his beloved friends, and at a quite advanced age too-”

“T- that doesn’t- really sound so bad.” Izuku mutters before he can stop himself, earning another laugh from the old woman beside him, “W- wait, I m- mean-!”

“Oh, you have to first get there you know, with your friends and all, and trust me when I tell you is not as easy as I make it seem, roguish smile or not.” She sighs back, Izuku’s cheeks reaching shades of red so violent they were impossible to be perceived by the human eye, “You know what young man, I can tell you are going to go places with this mentality of yours, so how about this: Since you don’t want any help with your relationship, and you’ve been so kind to listen to this silly old woman all evening, how about you get to express a wish at our shrine? You won’t even need to leave a tip for this one.”

“A wish?” Izuku asks in a confused tone, only earning an enigmatic smile from the old woman in front of him, “W- well, I wouldn’t really mind if I got to get out of this wheelchair earlier than expected-”

He stops, the old woman’s words catching up back to him as he furrows his brow in confusion.

“W- wait a second, what do you mean I listened to you all evening? It’s- it’s still barely past three-” Izuku asks, confused, only for the wind to pick up again as a screeching howl resonates within the shrine’s garden.

Izuku looks up at what he assumes is the source of the ghastly wail, the shrine’s roof, only to find it empty, only now noticing the darkening sky above him.

“Oh no, we really did spend the entire evening talking! And I didn’t even manage to find Uraraka!” Izuku shoots back, instantly in a panic before turning back to the old woman with him, “I’m- I’m s- sorry I have to cut this short b- but-”

Izuku stops, the old woman having apparently disappeared without a trace the moment he had averted his eyes from her. He blinks, startled, before

“Where- where did she go?” Izuku asks to himself, the young man shaking his head in disbelief shortly after, “Now’s not the time Izuku, I need to get back to the others, they must be worried sick for me!”

He wheels himself away as fast as he can, completely ignoring as the wind’s gentle breeze ruffles his messy mop of green air as he does so, or the two figures standing on top of the Shrine’s rooftop he’s leaving behind.

Silence reigns for but a second in the now dark, empty courtyard, as Izuku crosses the red _torii_ right at its entrance and comes back into Inaba’s historic shopping district, back into the world of the living.

And then.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that.” One of the figures on the rooftop finally says in a defensive tone, her face somehow looking far older and yet far younger than the one who approached Izuku, “The nerd is not that bad, and the brat of the brat of- who cares how many more brats of Red and Green's baby brat seem to like him well enough, as I'm sure you've already discovered.”

A piece of paper is clutched in her hand, a poem written on the fly, almost for old times’ sake. The paper shift, and where once was paper, now is a large leaf instead, dried up and dead, as if all life had been siphoned off it.

A high-pitched howl comes from the second figure, a large, red fox, completely ignoring the old yet young woman beside her on the rooftop while she keeps glaring at the young man on the streets below, finally back with his friends.

“Yeah yeah, I know, we should only give away freebies once least they start getting- what's the word you used, oh, yes, _entitled._ ” The woman shoots back with a tired groan, “Look, this was my decision and my decision only, can't have the nerd go through what you and my- my husband have in mind in the condition he found himself in. Dead kids don't make for happy return costumers after all, right?”

The fox remains silent, eyes never leaving the young man and his many friends standing in the streets below as they begin to move back to their inn for the night.

“Oh, I can see those businesswoman wheels turning behind those eyes,” The woman eggs the fox on with a pleased hum, “Or maybe it’s your heroic side doing the thinking for once? Are you perhaps calculating how much younger he is compared to you when you started, now that you’ve got a better look at him? Getting worried he's too soft to finally do what needs to be done?"

"I swear they've been getting younger by the generation," She continues, an hint of disgust coloring her tone, "Last one was fresh out of that wretched military academy of his, this one hasn't even started it yet, I bet the next one is going to be barely out of middle school or some shit like that, maybe with that same stupid nerd still there to guide him to his own stupid fucking demise, if he hasn't died young already."

A low growl escapes the fox, almost threatening, only earning a chuckle from the woman beside her.

“Don't go all sacred fox spirit on me like that, you're thousands of years too early to try that shit on me.” The woman scoffs back with her own glare. “But I have to- concede you this one. At least this one is older than that- esteemed husband of mine was back when he was playing with forces he didn't even understand-”

“Oh, which reminds me," The woman exclaims, one fist striking her open palm as a small smile graces her face, "When's the hazing set for? I'd say we can have a nice and violent thunderstorm set for- the day after tomorrow's night? Wouldn't want the kids to miss the fishing competition, and I bet that idiot husband of mine would agree with me on-"

A howl escapes the fox as she interrupts the woman's ramblings, right as time slows to a crawl as the woman’s mouth closes with a loud snap, her eyes widening, imperceptibly, only to narrow back into a harsh glare.

"Tonight?" She asks, her eyebrows only narrowing further, "I am not- fucking up the weather forecast tonight, the kid literally just arrived and he's still stuck on that stupid thing till tomorrow morning when he _miraculously_ wakes up as good as new, we should let him develop his bonds with his friends for the next couple of days and then, and I still need to- prepare myself, it's been- Gods it's been decades since the last time I saw him I need to- I need to get myself something new to wear and-"

The fox barks loudly at the woman, a loud command that crashes against what little was left of the woman's nerves, shattering them in one second.

"Ex- Fucking- Cuse me?" The woman snaps, her tone dangerously low, "How- fucking dare you try to- what, _pull rank_? ON ME?! Trying to make me feel bad for yourself after you fucking trapped us in this fucking- cycle of bullshit because you just couldn't fucking leave enough alone?! You had this fucking town, you had that stupid fucking farm and you had to throw it all away for what? To die? To die right in front of him?! To trap him in here with you by laying on his guilt?! Just because you wanted to go and play hero?!"

The Fox barks out something, as if she's trying to justify herself, only to be harshly rebuked by the woman beside her.

" **SILENCE**." The woman bellows as her eyes start taking a shining, almost blinding hue. The wind starts to harshly sweep over the rooftop, the woman's voice echoing in the empty shrine courtyard below them, crackling with the anger and sparks of a summer tempest. The Fox tries to stand up before she is brought to heel, lowering herself into the rooftop as if she's bowing to her.

The fox whines in pain, which is seemingly enough to snap the woman out of her moment, the light in her eyes getting snuffed out in an instant as she looks backat her companion with new eyes.

She takes some deep, controlled breaths as the wind slowly fades as the Fox, slowly, raises her muzzle back from the ground, looking back at the woman beside her, her eyes sparkling with _something._

An awkward silence feels the group, but is short lived as the woman opens her mouth again with a sigh.

“This is, what, the fifth fucking time we had to go through this?" She says, almost absentminded, "This is- this is getting ridiculous, we’ve been stuck here for- for way too fucking long. And for what? Destiny and- and- and the will of the gods or of the mortals out there or- or whatever other esoteric bullshit they're going to force on us next time! All those stupid talks of destiny and cycles and revenge and justice and- all that shit just so we’re stuck here and you’re a stupid fox and he’s stuck over there and a girl would think at least you'd try to be a- better host about it given how I can only meet that- that idiot when another dumbass shows up but all you keep talking about are your fucking shrine and all this mystical crap that comes with it! You could at least vary it a little you brat, maybe talk about, I don't know- Dolphins from time to time!"

A strange, melancholic sound escape the fox's maw, sounding almost like a chuckle but not quite even as it's completely ignored by the woman beside her.

“And do you know what’s- what's even worse?” The woman continues, seemingly on a roll as the fox stares back at her with wide eyes. “I’ve- I've never even fucking **cared** about any of that esoteric garbage back when we were still alive, I did **not** care about this mystical cycle of bullshit back when **you** were still alive, and I sure as hell don’t care about any of this shit right now.” The woman replies with a long-suffering sigh, “Which gods I realize now how hypocritical that makes me sound after everything I did but you know what? Who the fuck cares at this point?! That was centuries ago and now the two of us are stuck here in this stupid cycle with you and whatever new idiot comes along while our family is- not here with us, and I can’t even meet back with him unless it’s for this stupid thing with you!”

The woman stops, seemingly for good this time. Her breath is haggard as some stray tears escaping her tired eyes, the woman old hands coming to her far younger face to furiously wipe them off.

“Great, I managed to ruin another night again.” She murmurs with a sob, "Look at me, the big bad goddess of old, getting all sad and pathetic over- over someone as stupid as him not being here. I would have preferred losing my memories of him again at this point..."

The Fox howls something at that, low and melancholic, and the woman giving out a watery chuckle in response.

"Yeah, y- you're right, I- I wouldn't lose my memories of him, not these ones at least." She admits with another small giggle, "Not after having spent so much time making so many of them with him- with all of them."

She gives out one, deep breath, her tears finally stopping as she looks back at the fox beside her with a small, almost contrite smile.

“Look, I’m sorry, I- I didn’t want to yell at you, it’s just-“ Another deep sigh escapes her mouth, as if she’s steeling herself. “I’m just- so fucking tired at this point of all this garbage shit bullshit you know? I just want us to get back with them, and you to meet back- everyone else really. It sucks so fucking hard being stuck here, with all- all those memories of how good things used to be, only to be left- Alone. Forgotten. Again.”

The fox howls back with a nod, earning a small, watery giggle from the woman beside her.

“Let’s- Let’s just hope this is the last time we have to go through this, OK?” The woman sighs back, one hand coming to her brow to stave off a headache.

“Both for ours and that nerd's sake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is unfortunately Unbetated this time due to time restrains.
> 
> I'm sorry for the long wait but there where the holidays and then I had to work on university and then a couple ofpersonal life shit, but here's the much awaited new chapter.
> 
> Next Chapter will come out... at some point. Somewhere around February at this point? I am working on three exams for late January to mid February for my Masters Degree (Or the equivalent of the Master's Degree here in Italy more like), so I have to work on that now sorry.
> 
> However, WHEN it does come out (No If, When, rest assured), it will be mostly be about one, very specific Persona 4 event.
> 
> And that event's name?
> 
> The King's Game.


End file.
